# Patch Adams (1998)

### reviewed by
Ryan Davis

    Patch Adams
    Rated `PG-13'
    A Review By Ryan Davis

The scene at the end of 1989's `Dead Poets Society,' when Robin Williams' English students stand up on their desk and say, `Captain, My Captain,' gets me every time. Unfortunately, the court room scene near the end of Robin's newest film, `Patch Adams,' doesn't have anywhere near the same impact.

From the surface `Patch Adams' looks very promising. It's a story about a not so young man, Patch Adams (Robin Williams), who finds meaning in his life through helping sick people. When the film opens, we find Patch, depressed and suicidal, checking himself into a mental hospital. In a few scenes, strongly reminiscent of `One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest,' he ends up helping the patients through their problems; and it's here that he finds how much he loves working with people. So he checks himself out of the hospital, and heads straight to medical school.

Right from the start, Patch uses comedy to help make the patient more comfortable. He continuously breaks medical tradition and makes the Dean of the school angry. Shortly after joining medical school, he meets and falls in love with Carin (Monica Potter). They, along with Patch's dork friend, Truman (Daniel London), start a medical clinic for uninsured people. Once the Dean catches wind of the clinic, he tells Patch he can't graduate and kicks him out of school. Patch, like what any true American would do, takes the school to court. It's here where the not so climatic court room battle takes place, over whether or not Patch can become a real doctor.

I have never seen a movie with some potential just completely blow it. It seems more like a series of short sketches, rather than a full-length movie. Considering it runs almost two hours, much too long for such a light film, it could have flowed much smoother. Not to mention the fact of how serious the film takes itself, and manages to cover all the cliches of bad melodrama. Robin Williams saves the film from being abysmal with several comic scenes that elevate the movie to entertaining and worthwhile levels. But those moments are rare and in the end `Patch Adams' is barely average.

    Grade: C-

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