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The Road to Wellville

Play trailer Poster for The Road to Wellville R 1994 2h 0m Comedy Play Trailer Watchlist
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41% Tomatometer 17 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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Roger Ebert Chicago Sun-Times 01/01/2000
3/4
The movie is quite jolly in its preoccupation with digestion and the processes which precede and follow it. Go to Full Review
Mal Vincent The Virginian-Pilot 03/01/2022
0/4
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. Go to Full Review
Emanuel Levy EmanuelLevy.Com 06/30/2005
C
Victoria Alexander FilmsInReview.com 01/22/2004
1/5
Painful. Go to Full Review
Leonard Schwarz Palo Alto Weekly 05/20/2003
1.5/4
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Audience Reviews

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salvatore v @DVS64 Dec 4 The Road to Wellville è un film brillante, originale e sorprendentemente attuale, capace di unire satira, riflessione storica e intrattenimento di altissimo livello. Ambientato nell’America di fine Ottocento, racconta in modo ironico e intelligente l’ossessione per la salute, il benessere e le mode pseudoscientifiche, temi che oggi risultano più moderni che mai. La regia è elegante e visionaria, la scenografia ricostruisce perfettamente l’atmosfera dell’epoca e il cast offre interpretazioni sopra le righe ma perfettamente funzionali al tono grottesco del film. La storia scorre con ritmo, alternando momenti comici a spunti di riflessione tutt’altro che banali. È un film coraggioso, che non ha paura di prendersi gioco delle false certezze e del fanatismo, ma lo fa con intelligenza e stile. Chi gli attribuisce valutazioni negative probabilmente non ne coglie la profondità satirica né il messaggio di fondo. Un’opera sottovalutata, ma assolutamente da riscoprire. See more john d Jun 24 This is a very funny and at the same time cringey movie in the way it pushes the envelope on morality, sexuality and vapid culture. It plays like a blake Edwards farce crossed with a period drama and comes off beautifully. The writing is very clever and the performers are obviously having a blast. I love it and have watched it several times. That it's based on real life characters makes it stranger than fiction. See more Caleb C May 13 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. See more R F Apr 19 Loved it!! These days, movies and shows are so lame. This one has classic tone and very entertaining and funny. See more Keith S Apr 6 Just have fun watching an all star cast in a semi true story that includes crazy contraptions, crazy ideas & crazy characters. See more Many P Jan 30 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. See more Read all reviews
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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