The Road to Wellville (1994)

The Road to Wellville is a 1994 American comedy-drama film adaptation of T. Coraghessan Boyle's novel of the same name, which tells the story of the doctor and clean-living advocate John Harvey Kellogg and his methods employed at the Battle Creek Sanitarium at the beginning of the 20th Century. The film was written and directed by Alan Parker.

The film stars Anthony Hopkins as Dr. Kellogg, Matthew Broderick as William Lightbody, Bridget Fonda as his spouse Eleanor, John Cusack as Charles Ossining, Dana Carvey as the doctor's adopted son George, and Colm Meaney as Dr. Lionel Badger.

It was filmed in New Paltz, New York at the Mohonk Mountain House. Other locations were the North Carolina towns of Winnabow and Wilmington.

Synopsis

Dr. John Harvey Kellogg opened a sanitarium in Battle Creek, Michigan, where he practiced his unusual methods for maintaining health, including colonic irrigation, electrical stimulus and sexual abstinence, vegetarianism and physical exercise. The sanitarium attracts well-to-do patients including William and Eleanor Lightbody, who are suffering from poor health following the death of their child. On their way to Battle Creek they meet Charles Ossining, hoping to make a fortune by exploiting the fad for health food cereals.

Actors