Patch Adams (1998) Robin Williams, Daniel London, Monica Potter, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Bob Gunton, Josef Sommer, Irma P. Hall, Frances, James Greene, Michael Jeter, Harold Gould, Richard Kiley. Produced by Barry Kemp, Mike Farrell, Marvin Minoff, Charles Newirth. Screenplay by Steve Oedekerk, based on the book "Gesundheit: Good Health is a Laughing Matter" by Hunter Doherty Adams and Maureen Mylander. Directed by Tom Shadyac. 110 minutes PG-13, 1 star (out of five stars)
Review by Ed Johnson-Ott, NUVO Newsweekly www.nuvo-online.com Archive reviews at http://us.imdb.com/M/reviews_by?Edward+Johnson-ott To receive reviews by e-mail at no charge, send subscription requests to pbbp24a@prodigy.com
The most annoying of several cloying holiday films, ''Patch Adams'' takes the true story of a '70s medical student who defied school authorities with his humorous, personal approach to patient care, and twists it into yet another platform for Robin Williams to ham it up. The human Care Bear chucks all the restraint he displayed in ''Good Will Hunting'' and returns to his tired shtick, careening between manic cornball gags and mawkish sentimentality. The whole thing plays like a really long Robin Williams' talk show appearance with a plot slapped on.
Williams plays Hunter ''Patch'' Adams, a real-life doctor who currently operates a highly unorthodox clinic in West Virginia. His interest in medicine began in 1969, when he became suicidal and committed himself to a mental hospital, only to discover that his contacts with fellow patients were more therapeutic than sessions with his doctors. Adams decided to become a physician himself and entered medical school, where he annoyed the hell out of the medical establishment by blurring the doctor/patient line with his heartfelt, Catskills comic approach to the sick and suffering.
Adams' real-life story, documented in the 1993 book ''Gesundheit: Good Health is a Laughing Matter,'' is fascinating, but the film version is simply painful, turning mainstream doctors into cardboard villains and allowing Williams 110 minutes of insufferable self-indulgence. Robin Williams deserved his Best Supporting Actor Oscar for ''Good Will Hunting. '' His performance was tight, controlled and compelling; everything that is absent here. Williams is the sort of performer who requires a director to reign him in, protecting the actor from his own worst tendencies. In ''Patch Adams,'' he simply runs amok.
The film pits Adams against paper tigers, presenting traditional doctors as anal-retentive, self-righteous prigs. I found the blanket portrayal offensive, an insult to the many dedicated, overworked men and women who tirelessly devote themselves to quality patient care, often at the expense of their own well-being. If you believe this film, Patch was a red-nosed missionary, a medical superhero single-handedly fighting arrogant, uncaring pill-dispensers in the name of truth, justice and the Borscht-belt way. I didn't buy it for a second.
Adams' chief nemesis is Dean Walcott (Bob Gunton), a character with absolutely no depth or humanity, given to statements like ''we will rigorously and ruthlessly train the humanity out of you and turn you into something better.'' He fumes nonstop at Adams, raging over the Patch's attempts to ''bring us down to their level.'' Continuing the stereotyping, the film presents all nurses as uniformly sympathetic, twinkling angels beaten into submission by the evil doctors and all too happy to assist Patch in his whoopee-cushion quest. What a load of crap.
The film engages in non-stop emotional manipulation, stretching situations to ridiculous lengths to make Patch Adams a comic martyr. Watch Patch restore an elderly woman's will to live by plopping her into a vat of noodles! See Adams break the shell of a hateful cancer patient, bonding with him so completely that the man shoos his wife and children away from his deathbed, so he can spend his last moments on Earth with Patch! Gaze in amazement as the filmmakers wrap up the movie with a hearing in front of a medical board, allowing Williams one more opportunity to deliver a maudlin speech.
Or better yet, don't. Avoid this parade of clichéd schmaltz and read the book instead. It has to contain more truth than this syrupy disaster. At one point, a fellow student turns to Patch Adams and says ''God, you're being so self-indulgent!'' If only the director could have had the courage to say the same thing to Robin Williams.
© 1998 Ed Johnson-Ott
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