User reviews

I have to applaud both the real Patch Adams and the late Robin Williams for bringing his story to the screen for us. I really identified with the character, but that kind of approach to your job has its pitfalls.

Back in my working days at Crime Vicims Board in New York State I thought as did Patch Adams not to just take a bureaucratic approach to helping victims at a crisis point in their lives. Think of them as human beings and not just claimants. It was rewarding, it put me at odds with some of my colleagues and supervisors.

That kind of approach can also take its toll mentally on the individual. For any number of reasons I was glad to take an early retirement.

But I didn't have nearly the educational requirements to enter that profession. And getting too much involved could make you a basket case. Look at how on MASH those doctors deal with the hell of war and the absurdities of their situation. How much more so with someone who already had mental health issues?

Saying all that Patch Adams is a remarkable man and Robin Williams did a remarkable biographical film about him. Fictionalized a bit, but I think he got the right spirit for the part. Some other good performances are that of Carol Potter as the love interest, Daniel London as Williams's medical sidekick and Michael Jeter as the mental patient who awakens Patch Adams to his new approach to healing.

Patch Adams got one Oscar nomination for musical scoring. Should have rated a couple of others including one for Williams.

A fine film about an interesting man.

Robin Williams had so much joy in this, its so wonderful and heartwarming! Quite a few bleak characters and things that could have been avoided, otherwise I'd give it a 10. Excessive happiness should be fine, I don't understand why there's a boss that is a Debbie Downer, yeah ok he's serious about his job, but lacking sense of humor that is important for patients to enjoy. This is a powerful film and makes me bummed that Robin Williams is gone!

I think that the critics missed an important aspect of this movie, as did many viewers who have commented before me. Too many have claimed that this movie was a drama full of comedy, or a drama that was trying to be funny. Whether the critics think it achieved that goal or not, they missed an important point. The point is that Drama and Comedy are not two seperate things to be combined. A movie shouldn't have to combine the two. The two things are already combined. This movie attempted to show that there is comedy and laughter inherent in the drama of our everyday life. If we can find it, it can help us through the drama. This is the reason we cry when we are happy and we cry when we are sad. All emotions are part of something bigger and they are more similar than we think. I think that's part of what Patch Adams is trying to say.

In my opinion,Robin Williams is at his best when playing characters much like himself.This film is based on the life of the real Hunter "Patch" Adams,a man that Williams himself says that he closely relates to.In the medical profession,it is easy to become hard nosed and so wrapped up in treating the sickness that it is all too easy to forget that there are actual people behind the sickness.We are taught by Patch to treat the person first,because when you do so,treating the illness becomes somewhat easier.Sometimes people don't get better,but treating the soul to a laugh or two can lessen the pain and suffering.Sometimes people die,and while the people that loved them suffer and grieve,the suffering and grief are eased somewhat by the knowledge that their departed loved ones no longer suffer.This role was tailor made for Williams,and he is supported well,including another overlooked performance by the late Michael Jeter as a squirrel fearing mental patient.Thumbs up!

I liked Patch Adams it is a funny movie. It is also heart warming which makes this movie not only a good movie, but it is my favorite movie. I feel that Robin Williams is an incredible actor. He makes this movie very realistic. I like movies that are based on a true story and this is one of them.

Patch Adams is a feel-good movie with nice intentions but somehow the message got muddled. Robin Williams really plays well as an outrageous character and as a person who cares a lot. The film uses every sappy and cliched moments for the audience to like it. However, I'm not sure which message the movie wants to point out: laughter is the best medicine or doctors must care for their patients. Robin Williams displays the former message pretty well. But doctors aren't all that cold and as in the case of Patch's roommate, we do know he cares for his patients. In a scene where gynecologists are visiting the hospital, we see Patch has setup a mock of legs where the middle area is the door and watching the doctors enter the hospital is like that famous scene in Look Who's Talking. It was funny, but I realize also that I wouldn't want that joke played on me. In the generally panned "courtroom" scene, we see Patch making a speech where he is being tried for operating a clinic without a license. He talked his way about improving the quality of life for the patients while skirting the issue that he was illegally operating a clinic. From some of the comments here in IMDB, I think the problem with Patch's character was that his way (supposedly laughter is best medicine) is put too much like a gospel. What we mostly want is that there are people who care for us (much like what William Hurt's character in The Doctor wanted) and treat us well. We don't really care about any dumb jokes, we just want to be happy and cared for. The less fortunate ones like the kids in chemotherapy would benefit more from Patch's clownish ways of entertainment. There's nothing in this movie relating to Make a Wish Foundation, so I wonder why the hell the old woman in the movie must wallow in noodles just so she will eat. Although you could fault the movie for its overly constructed plot, you'll still end up enjoying it. You just wish for less bias in the story. The verdict: 3.5 of 5 stars.

My husband and I loved this film. We laughed, cried and felt warm and fuzzy all over! Very well made film. Robin, as always did a great job with his part. His co-actor/actress were very good too. The movie made us a part of what was going on. I want a doctor just like Patch. To bad there aren't more doctors like that.

The way people react to difficulties tells us a lot about them. There are those who get hysterical, there are those who care more about others than themselves, there are those who do the exact opposite and there are those who take everything calmly and try to act rationally. Illness and death are situations that no one likes to think about... but they are inevitabilities of life, and the way we face them tells us a lot about who we are. Patch Addams is a real-life doctor who advocates the use of joy and humor as part of medical therapy, and I agree with him. Here in Portugal, we even have a popular saying about it: laughs is always the best medicine.

In this film, we see Patch Addams' life course since he was admitted to a psychiatric clinic. The film is eloquent in the way it reveals the resistance of his university, which defended more impersonal methodologies, putting more distance between the doctor and his patient, and in the way it shows the modest beginning of the Gesundheit Institute, founded by Patch according to his view of medicine and medical practice. I don't know if the film was rigorous (I don't think so, since even Patch Addams himself repudiated the way he was portrayed by the film), but the truth is that the script works quite well, balancing between the funny and the sugary, and brings us a topic that makes us think.

I'm glad Robin Williams was chosen as the main character. He was the ideal person to give it a touch of irreverence that manages to kick the comedy to a level of true madness. It's not the actor's best work, but it's in the top ten. In total contrast, we have the characters of Phillip Seymour Hoffmann and Bob Gunton: the first is the model medicine student, studious, serious and committed, but also envious of his irreverent colleague; the second is the dean of the medical faculty, determined to forbid Patch's graduation despite the excellent grades he obtains in the several disciplines. They are cliché characters, quite stereotyped, but they work thanks to the performance of both actors, who give us a job of merit. Monica Potter is less interesting. She's pretty, but the chemistry with Williams is nil and their romance never feels as intense and solid as it should. The rest of the cast does what need to be done, without great notes to highlight.

The film is not a visual or effects show... that is not even desirable here. With such a solid story and good humorous premises, it is the script and actors that should be given the spotlight, and that is precisely what happens. Thus, we have a discreet cinematography that offers us an elegant look, but it does not stand out, with warm tones and good light and sharpness. The costumes and sets are within what we could expect, no surprises, and the filming locations were well-chosen. I especially liked some landscapes, like the mountains where Patch decides to found his hospital. The soundtrack harmonizes with this discreet tonic thanks to an orchestral and smooth sound.

The first time I watched this movie, it was truly wonderful and has been every time I've watched it since. "Patch Adams" delivers a powerful message of how to just be silly and break the rules when it's in the best interest of everyone around. He knew in his heart that all the patients needed to laugh. Laughter is after all the best medicine anyone could ask for. But Patch knew how to be serious and when to be. How he treated all the other students, faculty, nurses, and patients truly inspired more than just me, but many people I know. His way of life is one that I recommend for anyone.

Robin Williams give a 5-star performance in Patch Adams. He is a genius in creativity and comedy, but knows how to bring every aspect of a person's life out on the screen. I know that he is just playing the role, but he wraps you entirely into a movie and makes it seem like he is the man.

I recommend this movie to all...young and old. It's a winner forever in my heart.

Ignore the critics, this movie deserves more credit than it was given. It's a revolutionary story of the man who completely changed the doctor patient relationship. While he sometimes appeared delusional, Patch believed that the best kind of medicine was laughter. He believed in restoring humanity to patients, seeing them as individuals rather than numbers or breathing corpses. It's heartwarming and funny and brutal at times but definitely worth watching.

Is it possible to be obnoxious and funny at the same time? Yes, I believe it is. But "Patch Adams" is just obnoxious while thinking itself not merely funny, but noble as well. Robin Williams has played this sort of character before, the compassionate rebel, in other films based loosely on true stories, like "Good Morning Vietnam" and "The Dead Poets Society." If this film doesn't work as well as the others, it is because it oversimplifies what otherwise would be an attractive theme, namely that doctors should strive to improve the quality of their patients' lives rather than to postpone death. I wish there would be a movie that expresses this idea in a nuanced and believable fashion. Here, it's nothing but cheap shots at the establishment.

One of the major problems is that Patch Adams just isn't very funny, which undermines the whole point of what he's doing. I laughed during one scene involving a catatonic patient, but most of the time I just sat there looking about as stone-faced as the pretty medical student Patch flirts with. Considering how awkward and obtrusive most of Patch's "jokes" are, it's a wonder the movie never considers the possibility that the patients might not be amused; indeed, even the most irritable ones eventually succumb to his charms. If the real Patch Adams was truly like he's portrayed here, I doubt he'd have had any success with his "method." Perhaps the doctors who opposed his behavior actually had a point, and weren't simply the stuffy, anal-retentive stereotype this film shows them to be. This film seems to exist in a one-dimensional world where "comedy" automatically means dressing up as a clown and doing unsubtle slapstick, and where the only people who fail to appreciate such antics are those totally lacking in any sense of humor, not to mention humanity. In a particularly ironic scene, a fellow medical student played by the wonderful actor Philip Seymour Hoffman gives a heartfelt speech about the harm in Patch's failure to follow procedure. I actually found Hoffman's argument a lot more convincing than the movie wanted us to think.

In my experience, I've met a variety of medical professionals ranging from those who only seem concerned with the technical aspects of their profession to warm, funny individuals who care about their patients' feelings in addition to their health. The latter can be accomplished without acting obnoxious, arrogant, and immature like Patch Adams comes off in this film. I couldn't relate to the film because both sides seemed too extreme, and there wasn't the slightest hint that a broad middle ground exists. It was like having to choose between fascism and anarchy.

Eventually the film resorts to an implausible, manipulative plot device so as to give the Patch character a moment of doubt which the situation hardly merits. Or, at least, he's doubting the wrong thing. What he should be doubting is not whether humor itself has a legitimate place in the medical profession, but whether his particular brand of humor does. The movie's ideas are stronger than its execution, and at the end Patch gives an inspirational speech that actually impressed me. If only the rest of the film lived up to the strength of his words.

Patch Adams is classic Robin Williams. The film is funny at times, moving at times, and a good movie to watch.

I really don't get the people who have such negative reviews, did they even watch the same movie?

"Patch Adams" is a dumb, corny, manipulative piece of celluloid that overflows with cheap sentimentality and tired cliches. I have a feeling the medical institution isn't quite as cold and humorless as this film makes it out to be. To be fair, the first half of the film isn't that bad, what with William's jokes, but when things get serious and predictable, it goes nowhere but downhill from there.

Patch Adams is the remarkable true story about a man determined to become a medical doctor because he enjoys helping people. The medical community though do not like his methods of healing the sick patients, even though everyone else appreciates and enjoys what he does as he is the only one who can do so. Robin Williams stars as Patch 'Hunter' Adams and he does a brilliant job as always. He's an amazing actor and *really* funny too. Other good performances, come from Philip Seymour Hoffman and Monica Potter. Patch Adams is a must-see and I give the movie a 10/10.

I really enjoyed this movie and I'm a big Robin Williams fan. I still have an LP of his "Reality, What A Concept" album from 20 years ago. However, I feel it's time for Robin to look for different roles other than the "funny guy who's held down by his immediate superior, but not his superior's superior" role he's played in "Good Morning, Vietnam" and "Dead Poets Society". Once is enough, twice is maybe a coincidence, but three times might be putting an itchy saddle on Secretariat. Sure, he's done other roles recently. I just want him to keep trying new ones.

Patch Adams's biggest problem as a film is its tonal unevenness, which is a glaring attribute in the film's first fifteen minutes. Sometimes, it wants to crack jokes and laugh at a man who is catatonic (which, admittedly, makes for kind of a funny scene), and at others, it wants to rub sentimentality in your face in a way so hamfisted it's difficult to feel any real emotion. Writer Steve Oedekerk and director Tom Shadyac craft the film in such a strange and tonally inconsistent manner that real emotions are hard to distinguish from ones the film is trying to make you feel, and once you realize that, Patch Adams can never be a truly effective film.

However, it is not by any means an awful, "vile" film, as some have said. Robin Williams is simultaneously surprising and unsurprising, as he hits comedic heights and achieves dramatic success in a role that requires a whirlwind of exhausting energy all around. He plays the titular character, who's real name is Hunter Adams, where we see him commit himself to a mental hospital in the opening scene of the film (for reasons that are never really explained). In the hospital, Hunter interacts with many interesting characters, while also finding ways to annoy the hospital personnel for his often off-color attempts at humor.

After he is released from the hospital, Hunter, now going by the nickname "Patch," goes to medical school and tries to predicate his career off of helping those in upsetting situations by making them laugh and improving their mood by putting on something of a comedy act. Understandably, this upsets his peers, who are working to possess a stone-cold, serious attitude about their studies and work ethic, and his professors, who see his tactics as "goofing off" and discarding the seriousness that drives the medical field. He frazzles the nerves of not only his perfectionist roommate (Philip Seymour Hoffman) but his dean (Bob Gunton), who finds his methods to be infuriating beyond belief. Patch winds up meeting the attractive but unfriendly and frigid Carin (Monica Potter), who is attending school to learn and not socialize or try and form a relationship. Patch understands that, but wants to become friends with her because he sees her potential in the field, as well as somebody who attracts him for her beauty and her drive.

Patch winds up concocting the idea of a medical hospital built on personal friendships, humor, connections, and listening to patients rather than diagnosing them and leaving them without a possible outlet for conversation. He rounds up Carin, along with some other compassionate and wise individuals, to possibly kickstart a hospital predicated off of that specific thesis.

Williams is unbelievably talented as Patch Adams, energetic, manic, quietly-thoughtful, doe-eyed, and fun. Make no mistake, however, for the character is wise in the medical field, but believes the field needs to possess more human characteristics rather than identifying and referencing patients in numeric terms. As an actor, Williams bears an uncommon amount of energy in his performance, cycling through every emotion a man can handle and doing it with such fierce conviction. His ability to be joking about a catatonic patient one minute, and then interacting naturally with a young cancer patient the next shows diversity and talent on a grandscale for Williams as a character actor.

The issue with Patch Adams, however, is its tonal unevenness, and while this cycle of complex emotions is handled effectively by Williams, it is not displayed well through the film's editing and writing. Several scenes, especially ones that are handled with different tones and moods, feel like vignettes and do not connect well when edited together. Consider the first fifteen minutes of the film, showing Patch's life in a mental hospital. Scenes that handle what seem to be depression, humor, and receiving advice are spliced in together, one-after-another, making for a film that cannot find its own tone and stick to it. Understandably, there are a vicious cycle of feelings when handling a film about a doctor working in a hospital, but few have been this jumbled in terms of conjuring up a consistency.

Furthermore, the emotional manipulation Patch Adams commits is severely noted; this was indeed my biggest fear entering this film blindly, fearing that, being a film about dealing with the inevitably of death and suffering, as well as being a film also attempting to engage younger viewers, it would too sappy and sentimentalized. My assumptions were unfortunately correct, as Patch Adams is cloying and frustratingly basic in its emphasis of every emotional scene it houses, playing emotion-dictating piano music letting us know when we should cry and when we should be happy.

With that, Patch Adams is a mixed bag, commendable for its core performance by Robin Williams, but also contemptible for its tonal inconsistency and emotional manipulation practices. While watching the film, you may find the film bears qualities that make it hard to completely despise, but it isn't until the inevitable ending rolls around that we recall there also is a great deal we can critique.

Starring: Robin Williams, Monica Potter, Philip Seymour Hoffman, and Bob Gunton. Directed by: Tom Shadyac.

This is the first time I've watched "Patch Adams" in a lot of years. Watching this film in the light of Robin Williams' suicide just a couple of years ago gives a different feel to it. In fact, knowing what would ultimately happen to Williams creates a couple of scenes that are literally gut-wrenching. The very opening of the movie when Hunter (not yet "Patch") Adams - played by Williams - checks himself into a mental hospital because he's suicidal, and a scene toward the end of the movie when - with both his professional and personal lives having seemingly fallen apart - he stands at the edge of a cliff, venting to God and obviously thinking about ... Well, it's a powerful and unsettling scene even without knowing Williams' fate; even more unsettling with that knowledge.

"Patch Adams" tugs at the heartstrings in many ways. It elicits emotions and even perhaps a few tears - both of joy and of sadness. Anyone who isn't somehow emotionally touched by this movie is lacking a little bit of soul, I'd say. I would have to say that this is one of Robin Williams' absolute finest movies. I didn't always like his material; at times I found him way too over the top to actually be funny. Perhaps the secret to his success in "Patch Adams" is that he was being over the top - but in a movie that wasn't really a comedy. It's a dramatization of the real life story of Dr. Hunter "Patch" Adams. In fairness, one has to point out that the real Patch Adams didn't much like the movie - apparently saying that it made him out to be little more than a funny doctor. Who am I to argue with the guy whose life was being dramatized? Regardless, I thought it made him out to be much more than just a funny doctor. He came across as caring and compassionate and concerned - a doctor who wanted to break through the sometimes artificial boundaries separating patients from doctors and establish real relationships with those under his care. I understand the concept of professional boundaries. I'm in a profession that shares the concern with the need for boundaries. But I also understand that sometimes they can get in the way of actually helping people. Setting my personal opinions aside, though, I thought this movie made the point that doctors have to be more than well educated authority figures with a title. They need to be real life flesh and blood people. Maybe the portrayal by Williams emphasized Adams' "funniness" - but not in a way that was disrespectful. And I say that as one who would confess that I would be put off by a doctor who engaged in some of Adams' antics. I do want my doctor to be a little more serious than that - but still human and approachable. The movie basically traces Adams' journey through medical school on his way to becoming a doctor and his battles with the establishment who often tried to stop him, leading up to a climactic appearance before the state medical board in Virginia.

The performances in this are basically first rate. Williams was superb. Monica Potter as his love interest - fellow medical student Carin Fisher - was also a standout as a young woman with a lot of issues from her past who's adopted a tough as nails outlook on life, driven to graduate and get the title and the prestige, but who is softened and changed by her evolving relationship with Patch. Carin, unfortunately, wasn't "real." She was kind of a composite character as I understand it - a bit of the woman the real Patch did meet in medical school and marry and a bit of his best (male) friend who was actually murdered. I'm not convinced of the need to blend the characters. That was too much of an artificial tearjerker - powerful, but when you find out the real story after watching the movie and what happens to "Carin" you feel a bit lied to. At least I did. Bob Gunton was perhaps a bit too much of a caricature as the Dean of the medical school - by the book, more concerned with diseases than patients, fixated on the honour and dignity and respect of the medical profession at the expense of feeling or compassion. Gunton's performance was good - but he did come across as a caricature. But those two things (the false "Carin" story, and the caricature of Dean Walcott) are about the only things that would cause me to mark this movie down. There really wasn't a bad performance in the movie from the supporting cast.

This truly is one of Robin Williams' finest movies. No one should call themselves a fan of his without having watched it, and anyone who isn't a big fan of his (and I have mixed feelings) needs to watch this to really appreciate his depth of talent. (9/10)

A comedy to laugh and relax. Robin Williams does his usual job, make you laugh.

Good movie. Amazing way to treat people, Thanks actors for this work and this movie.

I have never seen a movie with Robin Williams that I haven't liked. The man is a comic genius and a great actor as well. He uses both of those characteristics in this movie.

Patch Adams is the true story about a doctor who works really hard to entertain the patients. I think it is awesome that a guy like him really existed and tried to make everything fun. The movie follows him from medical school all the way up through the rest of his life. It follows his relationships with his friends and his workers.

This movie is good, but not as good as many other Robin Williams movies. It never gets boring though, and it always stays entertaining. I'd say this is for anyone who likes Robin Williams, or for anyone who wants to see a funny movie.

Not often I would give 10 stars, but this is a beautiful movie, I don't know how much Hollywood has altered facts, but if all this is true, them Patch Adams is a truly amazing person. Robin Williams is superb playing the lead role, and he was such an amazing person himself; such a shame he died so tragically tortured. But this was "his" movie in a way, how he battled with himself, but always made others feel happy. Such a brilliant human being. The movie itself is a "must watch", happiness, sadness, thoughtfulness and a degree of weirdness. The cast is great, but Mr Robin Williams makes this a truly great movie. I can not believe I have waited all these years to watch it. A wonderful wonderful movie.

Robin Williams stars in a semi-biographical comedy-drama film costarring Daniel London, Monica Potter, Philip Seymour Hoffman and Bob Gunton. Directed by Tom Shadyac, it is based on the life story of Dr. Hunter "Patch" Adams and his book, Gesundheit: Good Health is a Laughing Matter, by Adams and Maureen Mylander.

Plot In A Paragraph: In the 1970's medical student Hunter "Patch" Adams starts to illegally "treat" patients at a hospital using humour as a medicine.

Williams is his usual self and he is well supported by the rest of the cast especially Gunton, Potter, London and the always brilliant Philip Seymour Hoffman. However Michael Jeter who I love, is not given as much to do as one would hope.

My only real problem with this movie seemed to be more of the same of Williams going in to a stuffy environment and shaking things up, and being looked down upon by his peers, but loved by those he helps. I wanted this to be as brilliant as "Dead Poets Society" and "Awakenings" and I love Robin Williams, but think he over shadowed the real Dr Hunter "Patch Adams" who I think deserved a better movie of his life achievements.

It does have its moments, and is not without its laugh out loud funny and touching moments and of course Williams remains as watchable as always, but this just didn't hit the mark for me, despite the movies best intentions.

'Patch Adams' is one of the worst melodramas I've ever seen. It's cloying, trite, and coldly manipulatize. While I have no doubt that Patch Adams and his philosophy, I have serious difficulty believing his life was ANYTHING like this movie.

This movie is so... conventional. It goes through all the motions of melodrama, and I didn't care. There's so much sap in this movie that I started to feel ill in the final act. And there is one scene that just made me mad-the pointless death of a character I will not reveal. This scene and the aftermath is so badly handled that I wanted to rip the film apart. Everyone in this movie gives their worst performance of their career. Everyone except Phillip Seymour Hoffman. At least he remains unscathed. Robin Williams gives, and I know this is hyperbole, one of the singularly worst performances I've ever seen on film.

'Patch Adams' is bad. Bad bad BAD! I hated it.