The Goose That Laid The Golden Egg is driven by an important story and a clear passion for raising awareness about transparency in medicine. Doug Bremner's personal connection to the subject gives the film authenticity, but authenticity alone isn't enough to sustain a compelling drama.
Written by Megan Dugann
Personally, I love a good drama film. Any scandal or gossip is right up my alley, and I absolutely love the post-movie debrief that comes after watching a good drama. When I heard that there was an opportunity to watch The Goose That Laid The Golden Egg, I jumped on it the first chance I got. A drama that transcends just the medical field and becomes a larger legal battle is captivating, and the more I learned about the film’s background, the more intrigued I became. Written and directed by Doug Bremner, who also appears in the film, this independently created medical drama is receiving its world premiere at this year’s Dances With Films, at the Chinese Theatre in Hollywood, CA.
The Goose That Laid The Golden Egg follows Dr. Jack Forteo (Andy Evans) as he investigates whether pharmaceutical company Renzon’s popular acne medication, Carinaderm, causes sudden depression in a concerning number of youth prescribed the pill. When Amanda Belleconda’s (Hannah Fierman) teenage son takes his own life just weeks after starting the medication, she seeks out Dr.Forteo’s help in supporting her legal case against Renzon, despite the implications it evidently has on his professional career and personal life, putting a strain on all areas of his life. As a vocal advocate for side-effect transparency in the medical field, Dr. Forteo identifies with Amanda’s case and chooses to sacrifice his reputation in order to seek out the truth.
The film is based on true events, being very close to home for Bremner. As a professor of psychiatry, he did extensive research on the impact of the acne medication isotretinoin (Accutane) on the brain and became involved in litigation surrounding the medication’s impact on youth mental health, acting as an expert witness in court. Writing based on his own experiences, Bremner uses his own knowledge as source material for the film. The medical information written into it is scientifically accurate, adding an additional layer of realism to the plot, and specifically to the character of Dr. Forteo, who serves as a clear stand-in for Bremner himself.
Bremner is the perfect person to create a film on this subject. It is evident that his own passion for transparency in medicine drives the narrative. Each character was written with a strong driving force behind their actions, which speaks to Bremner’s own motivation to create a space for greater awareness on this topic.
The movie’s darker tone is set almost immediately, with Amanda shown finding her own son after he had taken his own life within the first few minutes. Fierman gives an emotional performance as she comes to embody a mother who must grieve the loss of her son while also fighting for legal justice for others like him. Amanda imbues the film with a humanity that can oftentimes be lost in medical dramas. I am not the biggest fan of medical dramas as a whole because I find that sometimes the focus on the portrayal of the more clinical aspect takes away from the life within the film. But Dr. Forteo and Amanda remain important characters, despite the clear shift to the more scientific background that takes place at the end of the first act, serving as symbols of altruism and empathy in a divisive case where profits are valued more than human lives.
I did feel as though the film fell flat in some ways, specifically in its writing and pacing. The death at the beginning of the film almost felt rushed, taking away from the audience’s ability to emotionally connect with Amanda’s story. While the film runs just over 90 minutes, this plot was given just minutes to both start and finish, feeling jarring as a viewer. This remained a primary problem to me, with many scenes feeling very surface-level and rushed, as the writing limits character exploration and some subplots are disregarded altogether. Dr. Forteo and his wife face issues within their marriage as the case becomes more prominent in his life, which are quickly swept under the rug with little explanation. I felt as though Forteo’s humanity was only briefly explored, inhibiting his identity as a character to feel very three-dimensional. Further, the writing at times felt very expository, quickly jumping to each scene’s punch line without letting the viewer sit with it. As someone who watches a lot of drama films, I find the ability to connect with the motivations and feelings of characters to be what makes the genre stand out. Slow, developmental subplots are sometimes all it takes to keep audiences hooked, and I felt that I was frequently taken out of the film due to its rushed pacing. With the film’s writing feeling very surface-level at times, I felt as though the actors were not given a lot of room to embody their characters or deliver stand-out performances. Amanda’s son’s death was brushed over quickly in a way that didn’t allow the audience to truly feel her loss. Further, Dr. Forteo’s disagreement with Renzon employees and colleagues felt minor, despite their importance to the film’s plot as a whole. Conversations were wrapped up quickly, and conclusions were found with little repercussions. Despite a promising premise, the film struggles to develop its ideas into a compelling story. Weak pacing, underdeveloped characters, and plot points make it difficult to stay invested.
As someone who loves movies and is just happy to be watching one most of the time, I found myself enjoying many aspects of this film and admiring the work put in by each member of the cast and crew that brought this story to life. Studying film in university left a lasting impact on my own viewing experiences, as I think back to my own stories of working on indie films with big ambitions yet significant limitations that are extremely challenging to navigate. The film’s cinematography and general mise-en-scène stand out, with many beautiful locations allowing for the film to avoid feeling confined to a medical building or courtroom in a way that comes to mind with many medical or legal dramas.
Ultimately, The Goose That Laid The Golden Egg is driven by an important story and a clear passion for raising awareness about transparency in medicine. Doug Bremner's personal connection to the subject gives the film authenticity, but authenticity alone isn't enough to sustain a compelling drama. While its message is undeniably worthwhile, the film never fully reaches the dramatic potential of the real-life events that inspired it.
The Goose That Laid the Golden Egg premieres Saturday, June 27, at 3:45 p.m. PST at the Chinese Theatre in Hollywood as part of Dances With Films 2026. For more information, visit goosefilm.io.
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