Patch Adams *** (1998, Robin Williams, Monica Potter, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Daniel London, Harold Gould) – Classic Movie Review 1541

Director Tom Shadyac’s 1998 film is a good-hearted if sugary sweet, true-life-derived comedy drama, in which an ideally cast Robin Williams plays Hunter Patch Adams, an offbeat medical student in the 70s who illegally treats patients using humour, cheering up cancer sufferers with a red nose and soppy jokes.

He soon wins over the patients and also the pretty but all-too-serious medical student Carin (Monica Potter) he adores. Eventually Patch melts the hearts of both Carin and his starchy, stuffy roommate Mitch (Philip Seymour Hoffman. And, still ungraduated, Patch goes ahead and starts his own illegal clinic in the mountains with stores pinched from the hospital he’s learning in.

Patch Adams is well meaning and carefully crafted, but bilously sentimental. Apart from the gift of Williams’s precious, lovely sense humour in an expertly judged performance, the film often seems little more than a depressing TV movie biopic, despite its valiant attempts to be heart-warming and inspiring. However, Williams makes the most of all his many funny lines, Potter is pleasing as his co-star and so are other cast members, especially Philip Seymour Hoffman, Daniel London and Harold Gould.

Steve Oedekerk bases his screenplay on the book Gesundheit: Good Health Is a Laughing Matter by Hunter Patch Adams and Maureen Mylander.

Shadyac is the director of Ace Ventura: Pet Detective and Liar, Liar.

The real Patch Adams makes a cameo appearance in the film but said he hated the film and its portrayal of him.

Tragically dear Robin Williams was found dead in his home in Tiburon, California, on Monday August 11 2014, aged 63. The cause of death is believed to be suicide via asphyxiation. He had been battling depression and recently entered 12-step rehab for drug abuse. He won a Best Supporting Actor Oscar in 1997 for Good Will Hunting, and won two Emmys, four Golden Globes, five Grammys and two Screen Actors Guild Awards. Mrs Doubtfire (1993) was perhaps his most enduring character. He was gearing up to reprise his role in a sequel.

Philip Seymour Hoffman also died tragically, on February 2 2014, aged 46, from an apparent drug overdose  in his New York City apartment. Awarded a Best Actor Oscar for the 2005 film Capote, he checked into rehab in May 2013 for heroin use. He appeared in Punch-Drunk Love, Hard Eight, Boogie Nights, Magnolia, Flawless and The Master.

© Derek Winnert 2014 Classic Movie Review 1541

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