Christine Lahti, Matthew Modine, and Daphne Zuniga, all deserving much better, are asked to prop up a formulaic, cliche-ridden comedy-drama about first-year medical studentsa sort of Paper Chase clone with Lahti assuming the John Houseman part. Written by Ron Nyswaner and Mark Spragg and directed by Thom Eberhardt, the film remains pretty hopeless, and not even Modine and Zuniga can do enough to make it otherwise. Lahti, however, as gifted an actress as we have, is so astonishingly good in her impossible part that she doesn’t so much transcend her role as make it seem irrelevant. All things considered, seeing her in the part of Dr. Rachel Woodruff, a stern medical professor, is like hearing Charlie Parker play I’m Forever Blowing Bubbles with Guy Lombardo; even she can’t transform the material, but what she does with it is a wonder to behold. With Todd Field, John Scott Clough, Alice Carter, and Zakes Mokae. (JR)