The opening of the movie finds us reading the words, "Based on a True Story," but "Patch Adams" feels like a movie with a wildly out of control comic as its lead.
Robin Williams plays a real-life medical student named Hunter "Patch" Adams, who dreams of giving his future patients a better "quality of life." He prances around and makes patients laugh and feel good about themselves to make them forget their pains.
The message in "Patch Adams" is a nice one, but the actors don't make it real. The big payoffs feel cheap, especially a key speech by Williams late in the film. One of main problems is the screenplay, which doesn't really give us much to care about. Everything happens in such a set-up way that nothing feels right.
And so, this is not one of Williams' shining hours. Compare his work as a doctor in the wonderful "Awakenings" (1990) to this and it's night and day.
Robin Williams plays a real-life medical student named Hunter "Patch" Adams, who dreams of giving his future patients a better "quality of life." He prances around and makes patients laugh and feel good about themselves to make them forget their pains.
The message in "Patch Adams" is a nice one, but the actors don't make it real. The big payoffs feel cheap, especially a key speech by Williams late in the film. One of main problems is the screenplay, which doesn't really give us much to care about. Everything happens in such a set-up way that nothing feels right.
And so, this is not one of Williams' shining hours. Compare his work as a doctor in the wonderful "Awakenings" (1990) to this and it's night and day.