PATCH ADAMS (24)

Directed by: Tom Shadyac

Starring: Robin Williams, Monica Potter, Bob Gunton, Philip Seymour Hoffman

Theo Sez: Robin Williams as Hunter "Patch" Adams, a brilliant, unconventional young doctor who defied the medical Establishment by proving that "laughter is the best medicine". Coming soon : Michelle Pfeiffer as Suzanne "Fishnet" Leibowitz, a brilliant, unconventional young seamstress who turned the sewing Establishment on its head by proving that "a stitch in time saves nine", and Leonardo di Caprio as "Handsome" Harry Hopkins, a brilliant, unconventional young chartered accountant (and part-time ornithologist) who devoted his life to examining the relative values of a bird in the hand and two in the bush. The idiotic literal-mindedness of its premise doesn't prevent this flimsy confection from taking itself extremely seriously ("I had lost the right path," intones Williams in an opening voice-over ; "Eventually I would find the right path - but in the most unlikely place"), and in fact it does touch on an interesting notion - the way medical knowledge concentrates only on delaying Death, not improving quality of Life, an ever-more-relevant debate between living long and living well. Trouble is, the film short-circuits any kind of debate, overstating its case both by emphasising its hero's medical brilliance - he's got the knowledge as well as the offbeat ideas, likes a fart joke but also quotes Kazantzakis ; he's just impossible to argue against - and by inflating his methods into Robin Williams routines ("reaching out to people" becomes a non-stop variety performance in his hands). It smothers you into submission, discouraging you - right from the opening based-on-a-true-story spiel - from questioning what you're seeing, making everything unanswerably big and gaudy : it's just inapable of being subtle - even when tragedy strikes it's milked for full sensationalist value, overbalancing the whole film. Soothing, no doubt, for its nursery-school, smile-and-the-world-smiles-with-you sentiments ; still pernicious crap, though.