Few movies have been recommended to me more frequently than Robin Williams's 1998 flick Patch Adams. Now that I've finally seen it, few movies have disappointed me more thoroughly. Can there be any doubt this movie is an automaton endeavour, an attempt to cash in on Williams's appeal of more dramatic turns in Dead Poets Society, What Dreams May Come and Awakenings?
Before I trounce any further, I will point out that the movie's heart is in the right place. It wants to be loved. The problem is, this hospital drama wants so desperately to be loved that its countless contrivances become insufferable. Take a scene where a few nurses get thrown out of a patient's room. Williams, as the persistent mature student Patch Adams, notices the incident. Now of course Patch is going to "get through" to the surly man (Peter Coyote), and will naturally be just on time, plotwise, to connect with the patient before he makes his final peace with his grumpiness. Or, here's one better (and I'm not spoiling anything, don't worry): one of Patch's closest friends passes away and he doesn't have the strength to attend the funeral. You know, it's one of those scenes where a carefully placed tree a few yards away keeps him protected while the rest of the people watch the body get lowered. What does our depressed doctor do? He walks up to the coffin and places his flowers there. Ahem. Did I mention there's a scene where he experiences his internal paradigm shift after watching a butterfly fly away?
Each character that is not Patch is Capital B bad. I mean EVERYONE. Each character must get with Patch's program (don't worry, each has a scene where he/she will realize Adams is always right and they are always wrong). They are all angry people, including Monica Potter as the girl, Philip Seymour Hoffman as the eager med student, and Bob Gunton as the nasty Dean who needs to find reasons to throw Patch out so we can scream "Boo on the authority figure" and "Boo on the system," etc.
I would like to take a moment now and highlight the incessant piano score. It is annoying beyond the breaking point, and enters at such painfully obvious moments, I half expected a subtitle to appear at the bottom of the screen that says, "You may cry now."
I did not cry. I did not sigh. I smiled once or twice, almost felt a pang at one point, but mostly just felt manipulated. I did, however, ask "why?". Why would Tom Shadyac, the director of the Ace Ventura: Pet Detective movies, even bother to try to make a drama that is clearly not factually accurate? Why would Robin Williams decide to take a part that is so clearly reminiscent of his other serious doctor roles (except for the fact that Patch doesn't practice medicine, he only seems to prescribe laughter)? Why is the ending so insufferably hokey, where bald kids appear at the back of -- you guessed it -- a courtroom, and -- believe it or not -- Patch actually turns around and delivers a "meaningful speech" to the spectators. In this way, I suppose the movie is kind of like To Kill A Mockingbird; the only difference being that Patch Adams sucks.
