Patch Adams
OK, I made that up. Except about the codeine. But the point is that if a real doctor acted as Robin Williams does in Patch Adams, you'd correctly surmise he was nuts. But because it's Robin Williams, you naturally expect him to act that way, and he is a good enough actor to pull off Patch's silly antics, believing as Patch does that laughter is the best medicine.
Patch checks himself into a mental institution at the beginning of the film for suicidal depression, and quickly finds that he is able to connect with the sick people around him and make them feel better by using his sense of humor. He then decides to become a doctor, one who wants to buck the system by putting the focus on the personal connection between the doctor and patient instead of referring to patients by their bed number. Naturally, the dean of the medical school is the Bad Man who wants to squash Patch's irrepressible sense of fun despite his stellar GPA, and thus the stage is set. Fun vs. Stodgy, human compassion vs. clinical acumen in a battle for the souls of little kids with cancer.
Patch Adams is the classic definition of a melodrama. It is intensely sentimental, with lovely string sections cueing your tears and The Big Speech at the end. Patch Adams wants to make you both laugh and cry, but does the former much more effectively. The problem in reviewing this film is that it is "based on a true story". This makes it difficult to claim that certain events are plot devices designed to make you laugh or cry, although it seems impossible to me that many of the events happened as Patch Adams claims. I'm pretty sure that Patch Adams is based on a true story the way that Titanic was. Sure, the big boat went down, but a bazillion dollar diamond thrown into the ocean for sentimental reasons? I don't think so.
I won't spoil the plot twists (they're more like meanders, you can see them coming so far in advance), but suffice it so say that there are some shameless manipulations in Patch's love life that I went along with at the time, but resent in retrospect. The ending scenes are lifted from William's far better work in Dead Poet's Society, another film where an iconoclast goes against the system through his passion and humor. Dead Poet's Society was grittier and more honest than Patch Adams, and let its subject flow instead of forcing it into familiar grooves.
But is Patch Adams a poor movie? Depends on your constitution. It's been receiving either raves or complete pans in the press, and that's about right. Patch Adams is a feel-good movie if you don't mind being forced to feel good. Judging from box-office earnings, most people don't. Certainly, the comedic aspects are as excellent as you'd expect from Williams, and while the dramatic portion doesn't even come close to the superb work he did in Good Will Hunting, it's solid enough to carry the first two-thirds of the film successfully.
I can't quite forgive the last third for its grandiose speeches and blatant tear-jerking, but everyone else in the theatre with me seemed to go along with it, as I heard murmurs of appreciation during the credits. My girlfriend also liked it, and she is a better judge of popular opinion than I. But representing unpopular opinion, my diagnosis is that Patch Adams has a very healthy funny bone, but could use 90 cc's of dramatic originality. If you can hoist that sense of disbelief high enough to ride over the rough spots, you'll likely have a good time.
- Jared O'Connor
MOVIES
All Content © 1997, 1998 Jared O'Connor and Michael Baker