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Festivale online magazine, March issue Patch Adams movie review |
Patch Adams
Laughter makes better medicine
Answers are everywhere to be found, you just have to be open to them. When Hunter Adams sought help for suicidal depression by checking into a psychiatric hospital he found help not with the inattentive, self-important doctor, but by reaching out to his fellow inmates (Michael Jeter, Harry Gould).
Two years later, Patch is starting medical school, and from the Dean's opening address is questioning the accumulated crust of hundreds of years of medical-messiahs.
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Movie still, Robin Williams as Patch Adams |
"Indifference is a disease" One of his first questions is the absence of human (patient) contact in the first two years of training. He makes his way into the wards and into the hearts of the people he finds there. To Patch, they are people, with names, not cases with diagnoses. He wins over the kids, the nurses, even some of the toughest cases, and in doing so reduces the use of pain medication, and relieves some of the distress associated with disease.
Robin Williams as Patch Adams
Robin Williams and Monica Potter in Patch Adams But Patch enjoys connecting with people, he believes that when you connect with the person, you succeed, whether the person lives or dies. He focuses on giving quality to life rather than just fighting inevitable death. This film takes advantage of Williams' ability to play comedy and drama, as he fights the establishment and dons clown feet to enliven the patients. It's a laugh-coated thought-provoking film fraught with arguments and puns. Take two hours of Patch Adams and call me in the morning. |
Ali Kayn
See also: Robin Williams also appears in Good Will Hunting | |
| Just the facts:
Title: Patch Adams (1998) | |||
The Players: Robin Williams; Monica Potter; Philip Seymour Hoffman; Bob Gunton; Daniel London; Peter Coyote | Official website | |||
For session times of current films, use the cinema listings on the Movie links page. For scheduled release dates, see the coming attractions section. |
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