Twenty years ago this week, the late Robin Williams released his last solid box office hit. The Williams brand was strong enough in the '90s("Aladdin", "Mrs. Doubtfire", "Good Will Hunting") to generate $135 million domestically, making this true story about an unorthodox medical student the 61st highest-grossing film of the decade. The critics were less enamored(23% on RT), setting the tone for a backlash against the movie and(gasp!) the man himself in the months that followed. "Star Wars: Episode I- The Phantom Menace" has got nothing on the clownish white coat pictured above. The normally-generous Roger Ebert callously gave it one-and-a-half stars. His partner Gene Siskel insinuated that he'd rather die that receive treatment from Patch Adams(and he REALLY was dying). The two most famous reviewers in the country came out hard against compassion in the medical field. What's going on here? As a performer, Robin wore his heart on his sleeve, and the public started to rebel against his blatant sentimentality. His other films in this period("What Dreams May Come", Jakob the Liar", "Bicentennial Man") strengthened the case against a comedian that was infusing too much 'feeling' into his work. Williams would enter the 2000s with a tenuous grip on his audience, until his A-list membership was revoked around the time Bush won his second term. "Patch Adams" has been subjected to much finger-pointing as the beginning of the end, and it's entirely unfair.
I'm certainly not suggesting that "Patch" is an Oscar-worthy film, which may have been it's intent(see the Dec 25 opening). I AM suggesting that the pile-on mentality was speedily created at the dawn of the internet, and "Patch" just became a cool movie to hate. Who knew that putting smiles on the faces of cancer kids could be such an insidious concept? Maybe we're just a little too cynical(thanks, "Seinfeld"). Laughter may not be the best medicine, but it's better than stone-cold bureaucracy. We've all experienced that. If Robin's big nose leaves you seeing red, maybe YOU'RE the problem. When greeting strangers on the street is considered...strange, I can't help but feel like we've lost some of our collective heart and humanity along the way. We even have Philip Seymour Hoffman(eerily, he also died in 2014) as the sort of uptight prick that Patch is rallying against. That's a plus. Director Tom Shadyac("Ace Ventura", "Liar, Liar") has since retired from Hollywood, citing a health-related epiphany over the guilt of operating in an increasingly-corporate, monetary-obsessed industry. Patch's plight clearly stuck with him.
This movie's message is a positive one, even if it's delivered with the subtly of a sledgehammer. "Patch Adams" honestly sits somewhere in the middle of Robin Williams' filmography- not as good as "Dead Poets Society", and not nearly as bad as "Old Dogs". Let's get some perspective here. Pathos has never been this polarizing, because for every pretentious film snob that can't stand it, there's someone cheering Patch's efforts to eviscerate dead-eyed conformity with no less voracity than Tyler Durden. Let's respect that. This is a middle-of-the-road tearjerker for your grandmother that won't watch five minutes of "Pulp Fiction". Kids will like it, before they find out online that they're not supposed to. Patch is welcome in my hospital room AND my living room. Now drop the disillusionment and invite him into yours.
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