Kit and Cade close out their “favorite movie” picks before the Season 3 recap, with Cade bringing his all-time comfort pick: Patch Adams, starring Robin Williams. Cade frames it as the ultimate “chicken noodle soup for the soul” movie—funny, emotional, a little scary in places, and anchored by a big-hearted message about caring for people. Kit goes in excited (Robin Williams + feel-good premise), but ends up having a very different reaction to how the film executes its themes.
The film starts with Patch checking himself into a mental hospital, which both of them agree is a strong opening—especially for a movie that touches men’s mental health. While inside, Patch connects with other patients in unconventional ways: he plays into a roommate’s fear of “imaginary squirrels” to help him function, and he has a key exchange with a brilliant professor who repeatedly asks, “How many fingers do you see?” Patch learns the point isn’t to stare at the obvious problem, but to look beyond it—setting up the movie’s central philosophy: treat the patient, not the disease.
After leaving the hospital, Patch enters medical school and immediately clashes with the rigid, prestige-driven culture. Cade loves how Patch challenges “this is how it’s always been done” thinking, pushing curiosity, humanity, and bedside manner as essential parts of medicine—not optional extras. Kit agrees with the idea of fixing cold medical culture, but starts to disconnect from the way Patch’s behavior is portrayed, especially in the early medical school sections and his pursuit of the main love interest.
Their biggest split comes from Patch’s approach to the love story and his “unorthodox” hospital interactions. Cade reads Patch’s persistence as sweet, romantic, and sincere—balloons, studying together, slowly winning her over. Kit reads it as a problem: the love interest clearly establishes boundaries early, and Patch continues anyway, which makes her recoil from the romance rather than root for it. That discomfort carries into the hospital scenes too—Patch clowning with sick children and pushing humor as “medicine” works as a feel-good concept for Cade, but for Kit it feels unaccounted for, forced, and not grounded in real-world safeguards. The same goes for Patch trying to connect with a terminal, angry patient by rubbing his feet and singing—Cade sees it as a swing-and-miss moment on the way to deeper connection, while Kit finds it invasive and unrealistic.
Midway through, Patch creates the Gesundheit Institute, a free clinic-style community space where patients and caregivers support each other, and the film leans hard into the “medicine can be human” thesis. Cade loves this section, and Kit notes that if the movie had leaned more into holistic care and wellness (instead of sillier beats), the message would’ve landed better for her. They also mention that the real Patch Adams later criticized the film for being too silly and wished it had focused more on holistic medicine—something Kit immediately agrees would have improved it.
The finale centers on consequences: Patch is dragged into court for treating patients without a license, and he gives a big closing statement about calling, curiosity, and refusing to let institutions burn out your light. In the courtroom, patients he impacted arrive wearing red clown noses, and the moment becomes a public proof point that his approach mattered—even if it wasn’t traditional. Cade sees it as a huge emotional payoff and one of the reasons the movie stays with people.
They close by teeing up the Season 3 recap episode(s), where they’ll run through their favorites across the full “Stories That Stick” journey.
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