Sitting down to write this review, I feel like an elementary school teacher whose most sensitive and well-meaning pupil has just given me a drawing that I don’t quite understand.  I admire the intent and can feel the amount of love that went into the picture but the difference is that unfortunately while one can proudly hang such a project on their refrigerator and rave about it to others, when it comes to filmmaking (since we’re supposed to approach the medium at the professional level), the sweetest of intent can’t save a film that’s so woefully clichéd and poorly executed that it's nearly unwatchable.   

Such is the case of Waltzing Anna, which wears its heart on its DVD cover, proudly and nobly proclaiming the truism that “love is the best medicine.”  However, you know the film is in trouble early on (in the credit sequence that in fact doubles as a prologue) when the film’s themes are announced by a supporting character loudly to both the lead actor in case he’s forgotten the script he helped write, as well as the audience just in case we can’t be bothered to pay attention to the simplistic plot.   

Best suited to a sitcom-styled public service announcement or short film rather than a feature length film which hits DVD shelves on October 14, directors Doug Bollinger and Bx Giongrete’s earnest yet painfully awkward work begins strongly with a premise that seems to have borrowed heavily from the first season of television’s Northern Exposure, the Michael J. Fox comedy Doc Hollywood, and vintage Frank Capra. 

Except this time around, we aren’t following the affable Mr. Deeds nor Mr. Smith but co-writer/producer and star Robert Capelli Jr.’s Dr. Charlie Keegan, a Harvard-educated, unethical and shady doctor who is quickly busted for getting rich off running unnecessary tests on his elderly patients and padding his pockets with proceeds from our corporate insurance systems.  Although he assumes he’ll be in the clear since it’s his word against his dementia-ridden patients’, the medical board has a decidedly different idea, banishing Keegan for six months to work at a nursing home in upstate New York or else his license will be revoked for good.   

Given the current tragic state of our health care system and a majority of Americans who are uninsured or extremely under-insured, held ransom when they’re ill with co-pays and red tape which was chronicled in Michael Moore’s brilliant documentary, Sicko, initially it seemed there was a lot to like about Waltzing Anna just for the premise alone.  And while it will definitely strike a chord on that level, unfortunately, the film wanders into ridiculous and predictable territory as the excruciatingly miscast Capelli (whose hair resembles Chris Farley’s after a freak-out in Tommy Boy) rudely scoffs at the idea of changing diapers or working with the overly eccentric and never believable residents of Shady Pines.