'Doc Hollywood' recalls the pleasures of the star-driven comedy

Michael J. Fox settles into the simple life in 1991’s “Doc Hollywood.” (Warner Bros./MovieStillsDB.com)

"Doc Hollywood"
Released Aug. 2, 1991
Directed by Michael Caton-Jones
Where to Watch

It's a story we all know almost by heart once we reach voting age: Big city professional gets stuck in a rural community because reasons and discovers the charms of small-town living. But watching the 1991 comedy "Doc Hollywood" reminded me of the pleasures of another truth: Famous movie stars used to have the power to carry entire pictures on their own.

That is certainly the case with Michael J. Fox. The Canadian actor first rose to fame as the NBC sitcom "Family Ties" breakout star before taking the lead in one of the most successful blockbusters ever made, 1985's "Back to the Future." That movie threw Fox's character Marty McFly back in time 30 years to the 50s, when his parents were teenagers. "Back to the Future" solidified Fox's star status in Hollywood, and many of his subsequent films took advantage of his innate likability and awkward charm to cast him into other "fish out of water" scenarios.

In this situation, Fox plays Ben Stone, a confident doctor who's completed his medical residency and is ready to take a plumb job as a plastic surgeon in Los Angeles. Instead of flying, Stone drives cross-country to California in his 1956 Porsche 356 Speedster. While trying to bypass highway traffic, he crashes the car in a rural South Carolina town named Grady and runs afoul of the local judge. Stone is sentenced to 36 hours of community service as a doctor while the car is repaired.

It isn't long before Stone is introduced to the peculiarities and customs of Grady and its residents. The local doctor is an old-time crank who rarely shows up to work, and his nurse tracks Stone's work hours with a punch clock. The town mayor pulls out every stop to keep Stone in Grady, and his daughter sees a first-class ticket into big city life in the young doctor. The local insurance salesman keeps talking customers out of sales. But the one person who really catches Stone's eye is the town ambulance driver "Lou" (Julie Warner), who holds the doctor at a distance despite his interest.

If the plot seems familiar at this point, that's probably because it's been used several more times over the past three decades. The Pixar animated film "Cars" more or less lifts the story wholesale, and there are plenty of similarities to the recent sitcom "Schitt's Creek." I also can't say "Doc Hollywood" is a forgotten classic from the 90s. It's… fine, and it's likely all that it was designed to be. The movie gets by mainly on the charisma of Fox and how he can make the most out of any scene, with a couple of decent local yokel jokes to add support. It's the passable script with a marketable premise, cast a movie star to help get audiences into the theater, and hope the modestly-budgeted film makes enough money to make a decent profit. It's the kind of movie that's wholly vanished from the radar in recent years or sent directly to streaming, where the currency that matters is how much social media conversation it can muster.

"Doc Hollywood" is also a product of where movie culture was at the time. Fish out of water comedies date back to the silent movie era when "The Tramp" Charlie Chaplin mines all the humor he can get from his attempts to blend into high society. "Doc Hollywood" flips the dynamic of the protagonist from low class to high class just as the United States was coming out of a decade known for its excess and consumption: The 80s. Much of the most popular entertainment of the decade defined "a better life" as one with more money, material goods, and status, with love, happiness, and family holding up the rear. Fox himself played many of these roles, from his Alex P. Keaton on "Family Ties" to the 1987 film comedy, "The Secret of My Success."

But as the calendar switched to the 90s, cultural shifts and an economic recession altered the tenor of the stories we were seeing. Instead of a character-driven by monetary success, Fox was now playing somebody discovering the virtues of slowing down and connecting with people. While "Doc Hollywood" didn't match the financial, critical, or legacy success of "Back to the Future," Fox's turn as Dr. Ben Stone helps it stand out as one of the high points of his filmography.

"We wanted to keep the fable element, but not make a film that is pure fantasy," Fox said in 1991. "It's fun to make a movie that is like a Preston Sturges or Frank Capra film. In those movies, usually the stakes are no higher than one guy's life, and the context is no bigger than a small town. ... It's also nice that you can talk a studio into making a film like this."

"Doc Hollywood" opened in third place, behind "Hot Shots!" and the sci-fi juggernaut "Terminator 2: Judgment Day," but it did maintain a decent audience in the following weeks, grossing a total of $54.8 million domestically against a reported $20 million budget. The reception was much more mixed, as the film currently has a 50% approval rating from audiences on Rotten Tomatoes.

"There's nothing startling here, nothing flashy, nothing complex," wrote Eleanore Ringel Cater of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. "Just the solid, old-fashioned pleasure of watching an expert cast carry out a well-crafted story that celebrates the virtues of life off the fast track."

It's clear that "Doc Hollywood" didn't change the world upon release, nor became such a cultural favorite that quotes and moments are instantly recognizable in Internet memes and gifs. But I miss this kind of mid-budget movie where the premise is simple, the story personal, and the star can carry the day on performance and personality alone.

At the Box Office: As mentioned, "Doc Hollywood" didn't top the charts its first week out; that honor goes to "Hot Shots!," the parody from writer-director Jim Abrahams. Along with David and Jerry Zucker, Abrahams was one of the minds behind the comedy classic "Airplane!" and "The Naked Gun!" but the team broke up when it came time to do a sequel. Abrahams took aim at movies like "Top Gun" (with Charlie Sheen as his Tom Cruise) while David Zucker helmed "The Naked Gun 2 ½," released earlier that summer. "Hot Shots!" grossed $10.8 million in its opening weekend and had a good enough run that a sequel would arrive a few years later, but ultimately couldn't outpace the antics of Leslie Neilsen's goofball cop.

"Hot Shots!" did knock off the reigning box office champion of the summer, "Terminator 2: Judgment Day." The Jim Cameron action blockbuster continued to dominate ticket sales in its fifth week, netting $8.6 million to its accumulated total of $147.7 million. "Doc Hollywood" landed just a million behind "T2" for third place.

Rounding out the top five was "Boyz n the Hood" in fourth place with $3.6 million, followed by the Disney rerelease of the animated "One Hundred and One Dalmatians" with $3.6 million.

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Next Week: "Double Impact"