Pauline Kael

“In Coma, Geneviève Bujold, with her piquant features, her waif's face and sharp jaw, is like a soft little furry animal--a mink--with a dirty mind….

“…. Even the actors seem vacuous and immaculate, disinfected of any traces of personality. But not Bujold. There's no way to sanitize this actress. With her slightly moldy Peter Pan pertness, she's irreducibly curious--that's her sexy-witch essence. This is the first Hollywood picture in which Bujold has the central starring role, and she manages to sustain her performance by snuggling deep inside the shallow material. [Nice trick.] Dr. Wheeler's suspiciousness--the sneaky expressions she gets when she doesn't go along with what her superiors are telling her--is all we've got to hang on to in this sterile environment. There is not an instant when her closed-in face isn't intent; thin-skinned, touchy, she seems almost to sniff out fakery. When she crawls around in the dark places of the hospital … she's totally engaged in what she's doing, in the most sensory, little-beastie way. Climbing and wriggling around, high up, trying to get a foothold in a slippery place, she peels off her panty hose, and it would not seem surprising if the striptease continued. As she goes from one dangerous situation to the next, the narrative trap tightens: you fear for her safety, and the suspense gets you in the stomach, and maybe the chest, too….”

Pauline Kael
The New Yorker, February 6, 1978
Taking It All In, p. ??