The Road to Wellville [Blu-ray]

Director: Alan Parker Alan Parker

Overview

This adaptation of the comic novel by T. Coraghessan Boyle is the story of real-life Corn Flakes inventor Dr. John Harvey Kellogg (Anthony Hopkins), an eccentric health nut in the early 20th century. Convinced of the benefits of holistic health practices (mostly involving irrigation of the bowels and colon), Kellogg opens a spa in Battle Creek, Michigan that immediately attracts the well-to-do of his time, including Will (Matthew Broderick) and Eleanor Lightbody (Bridget Fonda). A young couple with sexual and marital problems, the Lightbodys aren't helped much by the forced separation of sexes at Kellogg's sanitarium, and the situation is further exacerbated by Will's obliging nurse (Traci Lind) and Eleanor's encounters with a group of German sex therapists. Also at the spa are Charles Ossining (John Cusack), an ambitious con man who sees a fortune in Kellogg's cereal, and the unwashed, cretinous George Kellogg (Dana Carvey), one of the doctor's several dozen adopted children. A spoof as obsessed as its protagonist with its scatological subject matter, The Road to Wellville was an unusual effort for director-composer Alan Parker, known better for darker dramatic material and musicals.

Product Details

Release Date:	06/23/2020
UPC:	0826663201956
Original Release:	1994
Rating:	R
Source:	Shout Factory
Language:	English
Time:	1:58:00
Sales rank:	16,674

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Matthew Broderick	Will Lightbody
John Cusack	Charles Ossining
Dana Carvey	George Kellogg
Michael Lerner	Goodloe Bender
Colm Meaney	Dr. Lionel Badger
John Neville	Endymion Hart-Jones
Lara Flynn Boyle	Ida Muntz
Traci Lind	Nurse Irene Graves
Camryn Manheim	Virginia Cranehill
Roy Brocksmith	Poultney Dab
Norbert Weisser	Dr. Spitzvogel
Monica Parker	Mrs. Tindermarsh
Jacob Reynolds	Young George Kellogg
Michael Goodwin	Dr. Frank Linniman
Marshall Efron	Bartholomew Bookbinder
Alexander Slanksnis	Mr. Unpronounceable
Carole Shelley	Mrs. Hookstratten
Gabriel Barre	Desk Clerk
Robert Tracey	Ernest O'Reilly
Ann Tucker	Hannah
Jemila Ericson	Mrs. Kellogg
George Nannerello	Reporter
Marianne Muellerleile	Nurse Bloethal
Jean Wenderlich	Ralph
Mark Jeffrey Miller	Woodbine
Joanne Pankow	Laughing Lady
Richard Olsen	Fox Fur Man,Fox Fur Man
Mary Jane Corry	Pianist
Richard Valliere	1st Reporter
George Nannarello	2nd Reporter
James Bigwood	3rd Reporter
David Kraus	Laughing Instructor
D. Anthony Pender	Waiter on Train
Mary Lucy Bivins	Woman on Train
William Hempel	Bellman
Richard H. Thornton	Mr. Abernathy
Lisa Altomare	Mrs. Portois
Jim Bath	Bartender
Madeline Shaw	1st Waitress
Barbara Phillips	2nd Waitress
Lindsay Hutchinson Berte	Breathing Instructor
Denise S. Bass	Nurse
Charlotte H. Ballinger	San Guest
John Henry Scott	Bath Attendant
Ann Deagon	Fox Fur Woman
Thomas Myers Jr.	Process Server
Beth Bostic	Miss Jarvis
Kerry Maher	Doorman
Sam Garner	Farrington
Anthony Hopkins	Dr. John Harvey Kellogg
David Snell	Conductor
Bridget Fonda	Actor

Technical Credits

Alan Parker	Director,Producer
Marc Abraham	Executive Producer
Armyan Bernstein	Producer
Robert F. Colesberry	Producer
Howard Feuer	Casting
Tom Rosenberg	Executive Producer
Juliet Taylor	Casting
Dean Mumford	Stunts
Jennifer Lamb	Stunts
Nelson Stoll	Sound Mixer
Donald Malouf	Sound Editor
Walter Newman	Sound Editor

Editorial Reviews

Although it was met with reactions ranging from bafflement to high-minded condescension upon its unsuccessful theatrical release, this scatological satire of America's early-1900s health obsession deserves a more balanced second look. Adapted by writer/director Alan Parker from the novel by T. Coraghessan Boyle, The Road to Wellville boasts a stellar cast, amusing period detail, and enough surreally grotesque set pieces to power any two David Cronenberg films. The humor may be of the toilet variety, but it serves persuasively and enjoyably to mock the "progressive" ideal of better living through "science" -- in this case the science of enemas, shock treatments, vegetarianism, and thinly disguised snake oil. Parker's satire succeeds or fails on the strength of the individual characters -- caricatures, really, for nothing about The Road to Wellville is subtle. Luckily, the actors are all game and capable, from Anthony Hopkins' buck-toothed reformer to the health-seekers played with abundant and varied charms by everyone from Lara Flynn Boyle and Camryn Manheim to Bridget Fonda and Matthew Broderick. Despite the presence of John Cusack, a subplot involving the breakfast-cereal boom doesn't really go anywhere, but it does help hammer home the film's key point: that middle-class Americans of any historical era would rather throw money at dubious health schemes than make substantive changes in their lifestyles. If modern audiences can't see that, perhaps they're simply too busy obsessing over their low-carb diets, cholesterol levels, home gyms, and personal trainers. The film's poor reputation more likely stems from two pieces of received wisdom: first, that jokes about the digestive and excretory systems are uniformly juvenile, and second, that the human libido took a vacation in the Victorian era and didn't resurface until the swinging 1960s. Parker's film, though uneven and overlong, has great fun disproving both notions.

All Movie Guide - Brian J. Dillard