Movie Review: Along Came A Spider (2001)

Genre: Crime Investigation Thriller

Director: Lee Tamahori

Starring: Morgan Freeman, Monica Potter, Michael Wincott, and Dylan Baker

Running Time: 103 minutes

Synopsis: In Washington DC, senator's daughter Megan Rose (Mika Boorem) is kidnapped from her school by a villain pretending to be teacher Gary Soneji (Michael Wincott). Secret Service agent Jezzie Flannigan (Monica Potter) teams up with semi-retired criminal profiler Dr. Alex Cross (Morgan Freeman) to track down the kidnapper. The pursuit will encounter many twists as Cross realizes Soneji is inspired by the Lindbergh baby kidnapping case and wants to achieve fame and notoriety.

What Works Well: This slick adaptation of the James Patterson novel enjoys Morgan Freeman's cerebral presence, and the first half oozes quality as a stimulating battle of wits unfolds with the requisite undercurrent of danger. Michael Wincott creates a worthwhile bad guy, and the feisty Megan will not settle for the role of docile kidnap victim. A ransom drop-off sequence is a breathlessly good tour of Washington DC landmarks.

What Does Not Work As Well: Tamahori ironically loses steam as the story starts to navigate several sharp twists in a clumsy search for elusive noir shadings. By the third act all the careful foundations have been discarded in favour of alternate, and superficially treated, agendas. Monica Potter is not quite up to the task of portraying a complex character battling to save her professional reputation. And the opening prologue summarizing the botched case that derailed Cross' career features unforgettably atrocious CGI.

Conclusion: Promising investigative work is undermined by shallow contortions.



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Movie Review: Patch Adams (1998)

A biographical drama and comedy, Patch Adams examines one man's attempt to humanize medical care.

It's the late 1960s, and after a suicide attempt Hunter "Patch" Adams (Robin Williams) admits himself to a psychiatric facility. He discovers a talent for connecting with fellow patients at a personal level and making them laugh, improving their disposition. He checks himself out and pursues a dream to become a doctor, enrolling at the Medical College of Virginia. He befriends fellow-student Truman Schiff (Daniel London), but his attempts to get to know classmate Carin Fisher (Monica Potter) are initially firmly rebuffed.

Patch is disappointed with the limited patient interaction afforded to medical students, and starts surreptitiously visiting hospital patients to provide companionship and humour. His anti-establishment antics incur the wrath of Dean Walcott (Bob Gunton) and the contempt of his studious roommate Mitch Roman (Philip Seymour Hoffman). Patch achieves high course marks in addition to espousing a different approach to providing care, and slowly gathers a circle of followers to practice medicine differently.

Loosely based on the life of the real Dr. Adams and directed by Tom Shadyac, the film stays close to traditional free-spirit-versus-the-establishment trappings. With quality production values and solid performances from a good cast, Patch Adams delivers the requisite call to cheer for the underdog rocking the boat. But the film's blatant aggrandization coupled with an excessively mawkish music score provide an overdose of sugar.

For all the good intentions on display to support Adams' genuinely caring and charitable approach to patient treatment, the film stubbornly ignores some fundamental questions. Investing large amounts of time with a few patients must mean that many other patients are left behind. Adams' dream of providing free treatment for all is laudable except that funding has to come from somewhere. And an expansive, humour-filled and personable approach to patient care works with a Robin Williams-like personality, but maybe not so much for doctors not bestowed with such extroverted talent.

The Steve Oedekerk script is not interested in exploring the difficult sides of these issue, and is instead content to portray Adams as purely good and absolutely just, and anyone who disagrees with him as a fossil. There is a brief moment of reflection when Adams' methods contribute to tragedy, but before long a butterfly flutters its wings and it's back to the cause.

Williams and Monica Potter lead the cast and complement each other. Shadyac allows Williams enough free reign to sprinkle welcome humour and sharp wit at regular intervals, and otherwise the star remains adequately focused. Potter is the antidote, and for most of the film provides Carin with a spine of resilience to Adams' charms.

Patch Adams highlights the need for the medical profession to remember the name behind the number on the chart, but does so with all the subtlety of a bold underline with triple exclamation marks.

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