"Patch Adams" I'm sure has well intentions, and it's nice to see a quiet, no-frills movie about good people doing good things, especially in our cynical day, but c'mon...if this doesn't look like the most pretentious veichle for Robin Williams, what does? Williams plays Hunter "Patch" Adams, a mental patient turned med student who believes in treating patients with laughter and showing them signs of glowing life, unlike those other establishment-type doctors...they're too square, man! But watching such heart-felt and completely cliched scenes such as Doc Adams bringing laughter to the sick children's ward by jumping and rolling around screaming, or reciting poetry over a beloved friend's coffin, combined with composer Marc Shaiman's usual heart-tugging score, which, in this film, if I had to give one word to describe would be REPETETIVE (I've never seen Shaiman in this type of unoriginal and almost lazy form before), "Patch Adams" rubs off like a big budget, expanded tv movie, gooey and weepy, warm and fuzzy, the likes that will have "Lifetime Television" execs drooling for similar projects.
Williams still has lots of energy, and Bob Gunton still has the evil charm (I truly hope the typecasting will soon stop for him...he's a talented actor and deserves to stretch his acting legs a little bit more than see-through roles like these) but "Patch Adams" is just too manipulating for me. For demonstrating how endlessly lovable Robin Williams really is, I'll take "What Dreams May Come" or even "Cadillac Man" over this literal fluff.
Williams still has lots of energy, and Bob Gunton still has the evil charm (I truly hope the typecasting will soon stop for him...he's a talented actor and deserves to stretch his acting legs a little bit more than see-through roles like these) but "Patch Adams" is just too manipulating for me. For demonstrating how endlessly lovable Robin Williams really is, I'll take "What Dreams May Come" or even "Cadillac Man" over this literal fluff.