Kirpianuscus ...and the nostalgia. as pillars of interest about this film about health industry, about love stories, about an old society and its values and innocence. a film like a photo album. first, for performances. not the less, for the plot. and for something who could be defined as...magic. a film about illusions. and about the pure truth.

rspress I would not say this is a fact based film. With its many substories that probably did not happen but as far as Dr. John Harvey Kellogg and the Battle Creek San was concerned it is fairly accurate. Dr. John Harvey Kellogg was pretty much as depicted in this film, a most excellent job by Anthony Hopkins. However the real Kellogg would make you eat half the Yogurt and the other half was used as an enema. Anthony Hopkins ,Bridget Fonda, Matthew Broderick, John Cusack, Dana Carvey, Michael Lerner, Colm Meaney, John Neville, Lara Flynn Boyle, Traci Lind, Camryn Manheim all turn in great performances with Hopkins, Broderick, Cusack and Lara Flynn Boyle as stand outs! I am not much for period based films but the amount of talent and the accurate detail of the quack medical devices used made me change my mind, at least with this film.That said I did not like the film when I first saw it. It was one of my wifes video picks and while I had heard of the film I did not know much about it. It had just been released to video. The problem was that so many images of the film stuck in my mind. After seeing it several more times years later I fell in love with the film and it is in my top 20 film list. The film may be an acquired taste but chew, chew, chew and it will be good for you!

quargelbrot I was highly surprised that this pearl of a movie has only an average rating here in IMDb, because this is one of the finest comedies of all-time! I saw it already more then a dozen in the last ten years and will never get bored of it. The humor in this movie is often sexual, but never on the low level the teenager-comedies of the last years have.See this movie, enjoy it.Anthony Hopkins alone shows, how good he is in a comedy, too. Hannibal Lecter as John Kellogg? What a wonderful idea!Either if you are pleased about the wonderful cast or you like the issue and the jokes in it.

mrockman-1 I rate the picture highly simply because it evokes the period and attitudes so interestingly. The tongue-in-cheek narrative follows the experiences of several people in and around the Battle Creek (Michigan) Sanitarium, that was operated as a health spa by Dr. John Harvey Kellogg. A member of the Seventh-Day Adventist Church, Dr. Kellogg was a firm believer in vegetarianism, no smoking, no drinking, regular exercise and abstinence from sexual activity as the roadmap to a healthy life. Much of what he was peddling was unscientific bushwa. But he did invent the breakfast cornflake, although it was his brother who successfully marketed it. The movie is set just after the turn of the 20th century, when the town of Battle Creek was host to dozens of wannabees who attempted to develop and market their own vegetarian breakfast foods. A well-meaning but gullible young man arrives to cash in on the breakfast food craze. A troubled young married couple visit the "San" to cure the man of his bowel troubles. Both find gratification not of the kind generally permissible under Dr. Kellogg's regime. The Dr.'s own family, that consists of he, his wife, and dozens of adopted children, is uniquely dysfunctional. One uncooperative child opposes the Dr. early on and later demonstrates peculiarly and emphatically what, exactly, in Dr. Kellogg he found repulsive. The movie is about sex. The regime is sexually repressive yet one finds sexual tension relieved at every turn. But, alas, there are no car chases.