The Road to Wellville

Set in Battle Creek, Michigan, at the turn of the twentieth century, this comedy follows a troubled married couple, William and Eleanor Lightbody, who arrive at the celebrated health resort run by Dr. John Harvey Kellogg, a staunch advocate of natural living. Patients there submit to a strict regimen of vegetarian food, exercise machines and abstention from sex, all meant to restore body and mind. The couple hopes the cure will mend their marriage, though William grows skeptical of the doctor's drastic methods. Meanwhile, a young hustler named Charles Ossining attempts to break into the breakfast cereal trade and challenge Kellogg's corn flakes, while Kellogg contends with family difficulties and professional rivalries of his own.

Alan Parker wrote and directed the film, which sits ninth among the twelve features he directed, arriving between The Commitments and Evita. Anthony Hopkins plays Kellogg, with Bridget Fonda, Matthew Broderick, John Cusack, Dana Carvey and Michael Lerner among the large credited cast of fifty. Produced by Robert F. Colesberry, Parker and Armyan Bernstein, it cost about 25 million dollars and took roughly 26 million worldwide, so it barely recovered its budget.

The film drew a critics' rating of 4.6 out of 10 from seventeen reviews. Audiences were somewhat warmer: it holds 5.9 out of 10 on IMDb across 14,000 votes and 5.6 on TMDB from 202 votes, a modest reception for a period comedy with a prominent cast.