click for new

click here for current front page

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.

Movie still, Robin Williams as Patch Adams

Search for: Search For: UK's largest videos store

"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 But people who rock the boat upset those who are afraid to swim, and he quickly frightens Dean Walcott (Bob Gunton), who feels his pedestal collapsing under Patch's doctors-as-peers philosophy. He understands that a book-learned doctor with no people skills can't succeed at human-based medicine. He cannot connect with people as people, he must be a father, trusted by child-like patients, set up as "something better" than human -- a medical doctor. 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 Tom Shadyac also directed Liar, Liar and The Nutty Professor Steve Oedekerk also wrote Nothing to Lose Monica Potter also appears in Con Air and Without Limits Philip Seymour Hoffman also appears in Boogie Nights and The Big Lebowski Due for Australian release March 25, 1999 For credits and official site details, click here. Search Festivale for more For credits and official site details, click here. Search Festivale for more

Like us on facebook

Enter movie, TV show, or person   Provided by Internet Movie Database.	Just the facts: Title: Patch Adams (1998) Written by: Hunter Doherty Adams & Maureen Mylander (book Gesundheit: Good Health Is a Laughing Matter), screenplay Steve Oedekerk Directed by: Tom Shadyac Produced by: Mike Farrell, Barry Kemp, Marvin Minoff, Deborah Moos-Hankin (co-producer as Devorah Moos-Hankin), Charles Newirth, Steve Oedekerk (co-producer), Tom Shadyac (executive), Marsha Garces Williams (executive) Edited by: Don Zimmerman Director of Photography: Phedon Papamichael running time: 110 minutes
	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.

Like us on facebook

Movie images, sounds, and video clips are solely owned by their respective companies. No other uses are permitted without the prior written consent of owner. Use of the material in violation of the foregoing may result in civil and/or criminal penalties. disclaimer Festivale Online Magazine Celebrate everything! www.festivale.info ISSN 1328-8008 Published in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia disclaimers | contact the editor | Festivale revision history Published in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia copyright © Festivale 1998 All rights reserved Filed: 28-Nov-1998 Last updated: Mar-1999 Last tested: 3-Jul-2014 Last Compiled: 3-Jul-2014 Entire site refreshed: Dec 2008-Feb 2009 | Site URL transferred: Jan 2005 (previously www.festivale.webcentral.com.au)