John Harvey Kellogg may have been the inventor of the corn flake and peanut butter, but his time spent running the Battle Creek sanitarium is the subject of the semi-biographical comedy, The Road To Wellville. At the sanitarium Dr. Kellogg taught of the dangers of eating meat, having sex, and even masturbation (after all, "an erection is a flagpole on your grave"). Without meat and sex, there's plenty of time for Dr. Kellogg's favorite pastime, enemas, with the occasional yogurt enema thrown in for good measure. Although not 100% biographical, based on the novel of the same name by T. Coraghessan Boyle, there's a lot more truth in The Road To Wellville than we'd like to think. After all, fact is stranger than fiction.<br /><br />Anthony Hopkins portrayal of the Dr. is an Oscar worthy performance. His portrayal of Dr. Kellogg shows him to be crazy, insistent, misguided, and even likable, all at the same time. With chompers a beaver would envy, Dr. Kellogg has a voice and presence all his own. Bridget Fonda and Matthew Broderick are well placed as the couple who's visiting 'The San' in hope of saving their marriage. Eleanor Lightbody is old hat to the San (this being her third visit) but Will Lightbody's rookie year is met with confusion, resistance and embarrassment, as he fantasies about the beautiful Nurse Irene Graves (Traci Lind) in the nude and wonders if he should add hallucinations to his list of ailments. While on the train to Battle Creek, the Lightbody's meet Charles (John Cusack) and breakfast cereal entrepreneur, who, once he arrives in Battle Creek, realizes he's in over his head with his fast talking sleaze ball partner, Goodloe Bender (brilliantly played by Michael Lerner, whom you may recall in similar roles in the films of the Coen brothers).<br /><br />It would be amiss not to mention George Kellogg (Dana Carvey), Dr. Kellogg's adopted delinquent adult son, who's perpetually covered in filth and returns to the San on occasion to ask for money and look at the naked women. In humorous flashbacks we learn of George's youth (Jacob Reynolds, whom you may know from Gummo (1997)) and gain a glimpse into his stubbornness.<br /><br />The film feels like a cross between the works of Terry Gilliam and Mike Judge. The cinematography and use of seemingly pointless inventions as set decoration bring a Gilliamesque feel to the film, while the defined, and specific looking, characters are reminiscent of Judges work in both, film and animation. The comedy is off beat and fueled by awkward moments, a cartoonish ragtime influenced score, and unique characters, such as the Dr. Lionel Badger, who "wrote an excellent piece on the clitoris". Badger, although a fellow vegetarian, shows up at the San to put a wrench is Dr. Kellogg's teaching on abstinence. Other characters, like Mr. Unpronounceable (Alexander Slanksins) from Russia, who has a problem with flatulence, and Ida Muntz (Laura Flynn Boyle) with her green skin condition, add to the well rounded cast of unique characters at the San.<br /><br />For an offbeat comedy full of characters and situations that will make you laugh, and scratch your head in wonder, while simultaneously amazing you with the 'health practices' of years gone by, you can't ask for much more than The Road to Wellville.