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The Road to Wellville

Play trailer Poster for The Road to Wellville R Released Oct 28, 1994 2h 0m Comedy Play Trailer Watchlist
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39% Tomatometer 18 Reviews 44% Popcornmeter 5,000+ Ratings
A staunch advocate of healthy living, Dr. John Harvey Kellogg (Anthony Hopkins) opens a sanitarium that promotes his progressive, if eccentric, ideas about optimal well-being. Among the clients who arrive at the facility are the opportunistic Charles Ossining (John Cusack), who is keen on marketing Kellogg's cereal, and the wealthy Will Lightbody (Matthew Broderick) and his wife, Eleanor (Bridget Fonda). This comedy is inspired by an actual spa run by Dr. Kellogg at the turn of the century.
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The Road to Wellville

Critics Reviews

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Lisa Schwarzbaum Entertainment Weekly Rated: C- Sep 7, 2011 Full Review Joe Williams St. Louis Post-Dispatch Rated: 3/5 Jul 7, 2005 Full Review Roger Ebert Chicago Sun-Times The movie is quite jolly in its preoccupation with digestion and the processes which precede and follow it. Rated: 3/4 Jan 1, 2000 Full Review Mal Vincent The Virginian-Pilot All is, obviously, not well in Wellville. If you manage to sit through the entire two hours of this smelly movie, you'll need two weeks at a spa. Rated: 0/4 Mar 1, 2022 Full Review Emanuel Levy EmanuelLevy.Com Rated: C Jun 30, 2005 Full Review Victoria Alexander FilmsInReview.com Painful. Rated: 1/5 Jan 22, 2004 Full Review Read all reviews

Audience Reviews

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Caleb C A Well-Dressed Fever Dream With Nowhere to Go The Road to Wellville is a film that looks great on the surface but collapses under the weight of its own eccentricity. Set in a lavishly recreated early 20th-century sanitarium, it aims to satirize the era’s health craze but ends up as a chaotic, exhausting fever dream — all noise, no clarity. Anthony Hopkins is miscast as Dr. Kellogg, delivering an over-the-top performance that never finds its footing. The rest of the cast struggles too, caught between caricature and confusion. Only the costumes and production design earn top marks, giving the illusion of prestige in a film that offers little emotional or narrative payoff. Any attempts at satire are buried beneath relentless weirdness. The story meanders, the tone wobbles, and the entertainment value is virtually nonexistent. A brief flicker of resolution in the final scenes — the sanitarium in flames, the Lightbodys’ escape — isn’t enough to justify the slog. In the end, The Road to Wellville is a well-dressed misfire: visually rich but ultimately hollow. Rated 0.5 out of 5 stars 05/13/25 Full Review R F Loved it!! These days, movies and shows are so lame. This one has classic tone and very entertaining and funny. Rated 5 out of 5 stars 04/19/25 Full Review Keith S Just have fun watching an all star cast in a semi true story that includes crazy contraptions, crazy ideas & crazy characters. Rated 4 out of 5 stars 04/06/25 Full Review Many P It should have been a great movie. But it was unwatchable with a plot that seems to focus on body wastes, body parts and none of it funny or interesting. Rated 1 out of 5 stars 01/30/25 Full Review DeAnna M It seemed like it was tying too hard to be an old tymie slapstick comedy. But it just ended up being painfully over acted. A waste of a good cast. It’s a good subject matter. It could have been a really a good move. Rated 1.5 out of 5 stars 07/21/24 Full Review j-charles d Sans doute a reevaluer en 2023 , compte tenu de nos debats sur l emprise medicale et les faje meds . Rated 5 out of 5 stars 09/24/23 Full Review Read all reviews
The Road to Wellville

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Cast & Crew

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Alan Parker

Director

Anthony Hopkins

Dr. John Harvey Kellogg

Bridget Fonda

Eleanor Lightbody

Matthew Broderick

William Lightbody

John Cusack

Charles Ossining

Dana Carvey

George Kellogg

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The Road to Wellville

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Movie Info

Synopsis A staunch advocate of healthy living, Dr. John Harvey Kellogg (Anthony Hopkins) opens a sanitarium that promotes his progressive, if eccentric, ideas about optimal well-being. Among the clients who arrive at the facility are the opportunistic Charles Ossining (John Cusack), who is keen on marketing Kellogg's cereal, and the wealthy Will Lightbody (Matthew Broderick) and his wife, Eleanor (Bridget Fonda). This comedy is inspired by an actual spa run by Dr. Kellogg at the turn of the century.
Director
Alan Parker
Producer
Armyan Bernstein, Robert F. Colesberry, Alan Parker
Screenwriter
Alan Parker
Production Co
Dirty Hands Productions, Beacon Pictures, Beacon Communications, Columbia Pictures, Per-Fo Pictures
Rating
R
Genre
Comedy
Original Language
English
Release Date (Theaters)
Oct 28, 1994, Limited
Release Date (Streaming)
Mar 24, 2020
Box Office (Gross USA)
$6.5M
Runtime
2h 0m
Sound Mix
Surround
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