Patch Adams
(1998)
biography
directed
by : Tom Shadyac
featuring
: Robin Williams - Daniel London - Monica Potter - Philip Seymour Hoffman
- Bob Gunton
running
time : 2 hours
The fact-based story of an unconventional
physician who attempted to heal patients with laughter, based on his own
book and mixing equal doses of scatological humor and pathos. Robin Williams
stars as Hunter Adams, a troubled young man who commits himself to a mental
institution in the late 1960s. His experiences there convince Adams to
become a doctor, and he enrolls in medical school, where he is appalled
at the cold, clinical professionalism that alienates patients from their
caregivers. Determined to provide emotional and spiritual relief as well
as medicine, Adams clowns around for his patients, getting to know them
personally. Although his efforts seem to work wonders and the hospital
nursing staff is grateful for the levity Adams provides, his methods alienate
his uptight roommate Mitch (Philips Seymour Hoffman) as well as the staff
and faculty of his school. Adams perseveres, however, even starting his
own low-cost rural clinic called the Gesundheit Institute, and wooing a
pretty fellow student, Carin (Monica Potter). Tragedy strikes, and Adams'
career is put in jeopardy, forcing him to defend his style and philosophy
before a board of jurists determined to bar him from practicing medicine.
Patch Adams (1998) was produced by former M*A*S*H* (1972-83) star Mike
Farrell, who met the real-life Adams when the offbeat doctor served as
an advisor to the actor's popular TV series.
After playing the funny-yet-sympathetic
doctor in Awakenings, the funny-yet-sympathetic teacher in Dead Poets Society,
and then the funny-yet-sympathetic disc jockey in Good Morning Vietnam,
Williams finally goes back to his roots as the funny-yet-sympathetic doctor
in this story of a medical student who reminds us that "laughter is always
the best medicine." Comedy director Tom Shadyac's true story of a man named
Patch Adams — who was responsible for introducing the initial concept of
endorphins in the brain — is told with all the Universal Studios panache,
trying to appease all filmgoing audiences. Patch's philosophy of "treating
the patient, not the disease" creates both allies and foes at the University
of Virginia medical hospital. His roommate, Mitch (Hoffman), sees Patch
as a goofball, until his own problem with a stubborn patient forces him
to utilize Patch's methods. However, the university dean is Patch's harshest
critic, eventually dismissing Patch from the hospital. As Patch himself
overcomes serious depression, he eventually opens his own clinic where
he gains notoriety as the "people doctor." He then writes a book, which
is ultimately turned into a Hollywood movie starring Williams.