They turned a significant page or two of Canadian history into a reasonably good movie but it was somewhat overwrought. The shots of deserted Toronto streets, like something from "On The Beach", were a little much. It was never like that. It's also mystifying why in doing a factual docu-drama, they fictionalized the main characters and the locations. There is no "Toronto Memorial Hospital." Those scenes were shot at North York General, which indeed was a SARS hotbed. Similarly the chief health official in the movie was a fictitious character rather than Toronto Medical Officer Of Health Dr. Shiela Basrur, who was the heroine of the saga. (Dr. Basrur is now the provincial MOH.) Even the local electronic media (with the exception of CTV) were fictional. All these things detract from what otherwise might have been a very solid film.
Review of Plague City: SARS in Toronto
