Frugal and fact-based Canadian period production concerning the involvement of Walt Whitman as guru figure in the reform of an insane asylum in London, Ontario, and as feather-ruffler of the local dodos. It is quick to tut-tut over the obstinacy with which men of the 19th Century hold to the views of the 19th Century, and it enrolls in the Cuckoo's Nest School of Psychology which proposes that mental patients are not mad, just unappreciated -- a proposal apt to persuade us that there are more, not fewer, madmen around than previously supposed. The most that can be said for it -- and it is no small thing -- is that the role of Walt Whitman safely insulates Rip Torn from accusations of overacting. With Colm Feore; written and directed by John Harrison. (1992) — Duncan Shepherd
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