Movies like Patch Adams
If Patch Adams's mix of nurse, 1970s and psychiatric hospital stayed with you, start here. Each film below was picked from what Patch Adams's fans love most, with the reason it belongs on this list.
- 1
Gifted Hands: The Ben Carson Story
2009 · Directed by Thomas Carter · 86 min7.8
Why you'll like itShares: 1970s, doctor, 1960s
Gifted Hands: The Ben Carson Story is a movie based on the life story of world-renowned neurosurgeon Ben Carson from 1961 to 1987.
- 2
Awakenings
1990 · Directed by Penny Marshall · 120 min7.8
Why you'll like itWith Robin Williams · Shares: hospital, medical drama · From the same decade (1990s)
Dr. Malcolm Sayer, a shy research physician, uses an experimental drug to "awaken" the catatonic victims of a rare disease. Leonard is the first patient to receive the controversial treatment.
- 3
Something the Lord Made
2004 · Directed by Joseph Sargent · 110 min8.0
Why you'll like itShares: hospital, medical drama
A dramatization of the relationship between heart surgery pioneers Alfred Blalock and Vivien Thomas.
- 4
Forrest Gump
1994 · Directed by Robert Zemeckis · 142 min8.5
Why you'll like itShares: 1970s, 1960s · Also comedy and drama · From the same decade (1990s)
A man with a low IQ has accomplished great things in his life and been present during significant historic events—in each case, far exceeding what anyone imagined he could do.
- 5
Doubt
2008 · Directed by John Patrick Shanley · 104 min7.2
Why you'll like itWith Philip Seymour Hoffman · Shares: 1960s
In 1964 Bronx, two Catholic school nuns question the new priest's ambiguous relationship with a troubled African-American student.
- 6
The Holdovers
2023 · Directed by Alexander Payne · 133 min7.6
Why you'll like itShares: 1970s · Also drama and comedy
A curmudgeonly instructor at a New England prep school is forced to remain on campus during Christmas break to babysit the handful of students with nowhere to go.
- 7
Shutter Island
2010 · Directed by Martin Scorsese · 138 min8.2
Why you'll like itShares: psychiatric hospital, doctor
World War II soldier-turned-U.S. Marshal Teddy Daniels investigates the disappearance of a patient from a hospital for the criminally insane, but his efforts are compromised by troubling visions and a mysterious doctor.
- 8
Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret.
2023 · Directed by Kelly Fremon Craig · 106 min7.1
Why you'll like itShares: 1970s · Also comedy and drama
When her family moves from New York City to New Jersey, an 11-year-old girl navigates new friends, feelings, and the beginning of adolescence.
- 9
The Hoax
2006 · Directed by Lasse Hallström · 116 min6.3
Why you'll like itShares: 1970s · Also comedy and drama
In what would cause a fantastic media frenzy, Clifford Irving sells his bogus biography of Howard Hughes to a premiere publishing house in the early 1970s.
- 10
Witness for the Prosecution
1957 · Directed by Billy Wilder · 116 min8.2
Why you'll like itShares: nurse
An ailing barrister is thrust back into the courtroom in what becomes one of the most unusual and eventful murder cases of the lawyer's career when he finds himself defending a man being tried for the murder of a…
- 11
Fathers and Daughters
2015 · Directed by Gabriele Muccino · 116 min7.2
Why you'll like itShares: hospital
A Pulitzer-winning writer grapples with being a widower and father after a mental breakdown, while, 27 years later, his grown daughter struggles to forge connections of her own.