PATCH ADAMS (M).
Director:Tom Shadyac
Stars: Robin Williams,
Monica Potter, Daniel London, Philip
Seymour Hoffman, Bob Gunton,
Harold Gould, Harve Presnell, Michael
Jeter, Josef Sommer, Irma P Hall,
Peter Coyote, Bruce Bohne, Ellen
Albertini Dow, Richard Kiley
Running Time:110 minutes.
Patch Adams tells the story of a dedicated and
unconventional doctor who challenged the traditional
wisdom of his teachers and peers. An idealistic
medical student, Hunter "Patch" Adams (Robin
Williams) believed that doctors should treat the
patient as well as the disease. His views brought him
into disfavour with the establishment, and he clashed
many times with the staid and humourless dean of the
medical school (Bob Gunton, best remembered as
the sadistic warden from The Shawshank
Redemption), who announces that all the humanity
will be trained out of them.
Adams was a naturally gifted student, which also
attracted the ire of his roommate Mitch (Philip
Seymour Hoffman), who came from a family of
doctors and was determined to succeed. He resented
Adams' frivolous attitude, which undermined all that
he believed in. But it was Adams' ability to strike a
chord with the patients that led to him risking his
reputation, his career and his future to create an
environment in which the patients were happy and
temporarily forgot their pain. He eventually set up a
free clinic with the help of fellow students Truman
(Daniel London) and Carin (a very
Julia-Roberts-like Monica Potter), which became
known as the Gesundheit Institute.
Although Patch Adams is based on a true story, one
wonders how many liberties the film makers have
taken with the facts to accommodate Williams'
normally manic persona. The real Adams was actually
a good twenty years younger than Williams, who
seems uncomfortably aware that here he is the oldest
person on campus. He was only a teenager when he
checked himself into an asylum to overcome his
suicidal tendencies and discovered his talent for
healing people's pain through humour, understanding
and compassion.
Patch Adams is meant to be an inspiring and uplifting
film, but it is also a horribly saccharine, clichéd and
cynically manipulative movie that wears its heart on
its sleeve. It is also a tad predictable, and most
audiences will probably be able to join the dots of the
plot by about midway through. There is the brutal and
unexpected death that brings on a crisis, a moment of
self doubt in which he questions everything he
believes in, and then there is the final vindication. The
idealistic, wise-cracking maverick who rails against
authority and tradition and becomes an inspirational
figure for many along the way has become something
of a cliché in Williams' repertoire (think Good
Morning Vietnam, Dead Poets' Society and even
Awakenings, etc).
Director Tom Shadyac has previously drawn
restrained performances from normally outrageous
comics like Eddie Murphy (The Nutty Professor)
and Jim Carrey (Liar Liar), but he seems unable to
keep his star on a tight leash here. There are plenty of
scenes in which Williams cuts loose with the sort of
energy and seemingly improvised humour that
audiences love and expect. Dramatically, Williams is
also permitted a number of moving and emotional
scenes. His outrageous performance dwarfs the
otherwise solid work of his co-stars, who find
themselves lumbered with one-dimensional,
stereotyped characters.
Patch Adams is a film designed to show case the
talents of its popular star, and fans will find plenty to
admire. Others, not so enamoured of the outrageous
Williams, may find the whole thing a vaguely
unsatisfactory experience.