The Road to Wellville (1994)

Based on the best-selling novel by T. Coraghessan Boyle, THE ROAD TO WELLVILLE satirizes late-19th-century health fads and medical procedures. The story focuses on Will Lightbody (Matthew Broderick) and his wife, Eleanor (Bridget Fonda), guests at the health spa of cereal mogul Dr. John Harvey Kellogg (Anthony Hopkins). The vacationing couple get more than they bargain for, however, when doctors separate the couple and force them to undergo an array of hilariously absurd medical treatments. Meanwhile, con artist Charles Ossining (John Cusack) and Kellogg's adopted son (Dana Carvey) plot to steal the doctor's coveted recipe for corn flakes.

THE ROAD TO WELLVILLE's highbrow humor lies somewhere between the stinging ironies of Terry Gilliam's BRAZIL and the spontaneous, madcap wit of the sketch comedy television show THE KIDS IN THE HALL. As he displayed in ANGEL HEART and PINK FLOYD: THE WALL, director Alan Parker is wonderfully adept at combining magic and mirth to make movies that entertain while subtly pressing forth a pointed moral lesson. A whimsical film, THE ROAD TO WELLVILLE mocks modernity and industrialization and warns viewers that sometimes even supposedly enlightened minds can lead society astray.