Patch Adams

Robin Williams starred in a semi-biographical comedy-drama about Dr. Hunter “Patch” Adams in 1998. Patch Adams was a box office success, starring Monica Potter, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Bob Gunton, Daniel London, and Peter Coyote alongside Williams. It was nominated for Best Original Score and two Golden Globes.

Patch Adams (Williams) is a medical student who wants to treat people, not just diseases. He bucks authority and acts silly and unprofessionally. He also drags his roommate Mitch Ronan (Hoffman) and two other friends (Potter and Daniel London) into his schemes as well.

Patch Adams may have been a financial success and was acted incredibly well, but unfortunately the plot did a tremendous disservice to the real Adams and his work.

The best acting really came from Williams and Hoffman. Williams did really well in the beginning of the film where he just wanted to help people no matter what the system did to him and the emotion when he keeps getting chastised for his methods is incredibly apparent. Hoffman pulled off great frustration in the beginning when he thought Patch was cheating but eventually, when he realized his methods worked, he really touched well on the gentleness in persuading him to not give up.

However, while the acting is really good, the plot wasn’t. While it is loosely based on what Adams did and wanted to do, it really changed a lot of aspects of his life. For instance, Carin didn’t actually exist as she was a gender-flipped version of another friend of Adams who wasn’t killed. Adams also didn’t commit felonies, like practicing medicine without a license and convince the board that he wasn’t in the wrong.

It’s not a terrible movie, but with all the problems with the plot, it isn’t one of Williams’ best movies.