The Road to Wellville

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The Road to Wellville

R

Released Oct 28, 1994

2h 0m

Comedy

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Tomatometer

Popcornmeter

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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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

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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

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Emanuel Levy

EmanuelLevy.Com

Rated: C

Jun 30, 2005

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Victoria Alexander

FilmsInReview.com

Painful.

Rated: 1/5

Jan 22, 2004

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Leonard Schwarz

Palo Alto Weekly

Rated: 1.5/4

May 20, 2003

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Philip Martin

Arkansas Democrat-Gazette

Rated: 2/5

Mar 31, 2003

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john d

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.

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

06/24/25

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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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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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