Review of Patch Adams (1998) by Jerry K — 30 Dec 2010

Okay so I've been a pre-med for a few years now, and it was about time I finally, finally got around to watching Patch Adams. The scenes where Patch is interacting with patients are a lot of fun. Film critics have noted the film's strong dose of sappiness. However, I've personally observed these types of emotions showing up in real-life medicine anyway, because of the kind of interactions patients and physicians have. Maybe not quite to the degree that the film pushes on the audience, but it's there. So I don't mind the film's tone...too much.

Robin Williams does a good job depicting Patch in his goofiness and unconventional ways. I liked the scene where Patch hangs out with the pediatric patients for the first time and basically goes bed to bed clowning around, giving each kid individual personalized attention. The gynecology welcome scene is totally awesome. Philip Seymour Hoffman is great as Patch's overwound overcompetitive roommate. The rigid arrogant self-entitled medical establishment and the uptight medical students are pretty amusing to watch, because I've already seen some of this kind of behavior as a pre-med.

The character Corinne is fictional and comes off like nothing more than a tool designed to move Patch through the story and to work the audience's emotions. The part of the film where Patch is questioning his philosophy, with the butterfly and all, also just seems like a really cheesy cynical way to work the audience's emotions too. It feels really forced, just drama for the sake of drama.

The film addresses important issues regarding the physician-patient relationship. It is true that too often, patients can get reduced to scientific biological case studies, with their identities as people stripped away. The way I understand it, this is because it is too easy to become overly immersed in the biological pathology at hand.

This is a real disservice to the patient and to the medical profession. When I started volunteering at hospitals, one of the first things I learned is that treating patients as human beings and making personal humane connections with them is ultimately the way to forge a true sense of trust between physician and patient. Also, another thing I learned is to ALWAYS treat nurses with the highest respect, because they are in fact the backbone of any hospital.

Overall, Patch Adams is fun entertainment, but it has a lesson to offer to those in the health professions, and to those who aspire to join the health professions someday.