Med Student ‘Patch Adams’ Laughs in the Face of Illness

The moment of truth in Tom Shadyac’s “Patch Adams,” the moment that will test audience willingness to suspend disbelief, comes at about the midpoint of the movie when a man writhing in agony with pancreatic cancer is made to laugh by a doctor acting like a clown.

It’s not that such a thing couldn’t happen. Maybe it did. “Patch Adams” is based on the true story of a jokester physician, played in the film by Robin Williams, who sees humor, intimacy and bedside manner as vital components of disease therapy.

In his book, the real Patch Adams told how his experiences as a mental patient led him to the therapeutic benefits of laughter, how his application of humor to treatment got him in trouble with medical authorities, and how he began creating his free clinic, the Gesundheit Institute, where illness is combated with humanism.

All that is retold in the movie, but what Patch Adams couldn’t do, even with the funniest man alive portraying him, is tell the filmmakers how to apply his healing touch to a movie script. If Patch Adams made that dying man laugh, surely, it didn’t happen this way.

Williams may have enough goodwill to get audiences through these awkward moments, but the reactions of the patients and the beguiled nursing staff to the stodgy antics overreach to a level that is almost insulting. Williams knows when material is working, and he knows the sound of an honestly aroused crowd. This ain’t it!

There are plenty of laughs in “Patch Adams,” but most of them emerge from moments when Williams appears to be vamping, or at least working with his own material. As we’ve discovered in so many of his movies, Williams’ internal muse, under the yoke of a script, cannot sustain a character beyond the moment.

Meanwhile, he’s stuck in roles that inevitably combine canned humor with overcooked sentiment. There’s a sense of laziness or unworthiness about the writing done for him. It’s as if the writers know they can’t connect with Williams’ unique comedy source, so they simply concoct “funny” scenes they hope he’ll personalize and elevate. Sometimes he does, sometimes not.

Williams is nothing if not a good sport, and he certainly gives better than he gets from the disjointed script (by Steve Oedekerk and others), particularly during the first half of the film, when we follow Patch’s progress from the mental institution to his eventful early years in medical school.

This section is the film’s best, but it’s still a mixed bag of comedy and bogus drama. Entire scenes occur as hospital room riffs, with Patch doing clown shtick for patients, then being dressed down by the medical school’s inhumanly cold Dean Wolcott (Bob Gunton). “Patch Adams” is built on the assumption that administrators are fed ice water intravenously, and that medical students smile at the risk of lowering their grade-point average.

These humorless scrubs include Patch’s insufferably serious roommate Mitch (Philip Seymour Hoffman), a would-be third-generation doctor determined to honor his family, and Carin (Monica Potter), who’s fighting a virtual army of perceived sexist demons. It’s easy to understand why Mitch hates Patch; the guy goofs off constantly and still gets better grades. And Carin’s resistance to Patch’s romantic pressure is understandable; he’s older than most of her professors.

Patch does find a kindred spirit in Truman (Daniel London), another eccentric outsider with unconventional views on doctoring. Together, and with Carin finally won over, they begin to create Gesundheit Institute as a moonlighting venture that will have tragic consequences and place Patch in the dock of med school justice, with his career riding on the outcome.

Shadyac, whose past comedies (“Ace Ventura,” “The Nutty Professor”) lacked the melodrama of “Patch Adams,” has essentially directed two different movies here, a comedy and a romantic tragedy, and the shift in tone is so abrupt you may need to consult a doctor for whiplash. If you get one like Patch, good luck.

* MPAA rating: PG-13 for some strong language and crude humor. Times guidelines: Profanity, crude humor and the undermining of faith in the health care system could cause parental pause.

‘Patch Adams’

Robin Williams: Patch Adams

Daniel London: Truman

Monica Potter: Carin

Philip Seymour Hoffman: Mitch

Bob Gunton: Dean Walcott

Universal Pictures presents a film directed by Tom Shadyac. Screenplay by Steve Oedekerk, from the book “Gesundheit: Good Health Is a Laughing Matter” by Hunter Doherty Adams with Maureen Mylander. Executive producers Tom Shadyac, Marsha Garces Williams. Producers Mike Farrell, Barry Kemp, Marvin Minoff, Charles Newirth. Co-producers Devorah Moos-Hankin, Steve Oedekerk. Associate producers Allegra Clegg, Alan B. Curtiss. Original music Marc Shaiman. Cinematography Phedon Papamichael. Costume design Judy Ruskin-Howell. Production design Linda DeScenna. Editing Don Zimmerman. Running time: 1 hour, 55 minutes.

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