The Secret Lives of Dentists

To be honest, I've never been much of a fan of Campbell Scott or Dennis Leary. For that matter, I've usually found director Alan Rudolph's films snail paced and DULL. You can make a slow movie that works (i.e. Michael Mann's The Insider), but it's difficult. As usual, Campbell seems to be in a semi-coma. How the hell is he the product of two such dynamic actors as the last George C. Scott and Colleen Dewhurst? Both of them were such vibrant magnetic people. Was he cowed by them?

So, we end up with the nasty, ugly Dennis Leary stealing the show. Hope Davis, who is so luminous as the schleppy Mrs Harvey Pekar is also reduced to a dullard, who might be having an affair with the conductor of the opera she appears in at the beginning of the movie. Did I have to mention that? Did this movie have to be made? All I know, if someone I was living with said that they could kill me out loud, let alone in front of our kids, I'd be out of there, helter skelter, no questions asked!

Alan Rudolph has come out, again, a winner with this taut dramatic comedy. The screen play by Craig Lucas, and based on a Jane Smiley's book, is a story about what happens to a married couple that is overwhelmed with the daily wear and tear of their suburban boredom.

David Hurst discovers at the very beginning of the film that his wife might be having an extra marital affair. The only problem is, he never gets to know who this person is that his wife, Dana, is seeing on the sly. All appearances point out to the fact that his dentist wife, has found someone that satisfies her more than the good husband.

Now, is it real, or is Dave seeing things? It's very easy to think that yes, Dana is cheating on her husband, yet, we never get any conclusive evidence this is so.

The wife, evidently, in this marriage is overwhelmed by her own life. She has her own practice as a dentist; she is a full fledged mother with three little girls that are showing signs of collective neurosis at a very early age in life, and she is an member of the chorus of the local opera company, which consumes all the free time she has.

Therefore, Dana's relationship with Dave suffers as they don't communicate. We never see them confronting what's wrong with their marriage, or what's driving them apart. Dave never has the courage to question Dana about her odd behavior. He is a coward who would rather keep a status quo and would never question the wife he clearly adores. There is a hidden drama between these two that never comes out in the open at all. It is a miracle they have stayed together for as long as they have since by all apparent reasons, this marriage should have been over a long, long time ago.

Campbell Scott is an actor whose face registers all the emotions this David Hurst is feeling without much effort. His take on this dentist is so incredible that one feels he is the real dentist at all times. One wouldn't mind going to him for a root canal, or any dental problem, as you know he is a decent person, even when he treats the patient from hell, Dennis Leary, at the beginning of the film.

Hope Davis is perfection herself in her approach to Dana. She is the mother of the three troubled little girls, as well as the wife of Dave. She hasn't enough time to pursue all she wants in life. Maybe she married David for the wrong reasons; perhaps she should have left this situation a long time ago. Who knows what's on her mind? Ms Davis is a fine actress who always delivers. In the hands of Alan Rudolph she is at the top of her form.

The three little Hurst girls are fine as the daughters of Dave and Dana and Dennis Leary is excellent as Dave's conscience in a very subtle role that he makes it his own.

Based upon the quality of The Moderns and Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle, I went to see this at the D.C. Film Festival and walked out of the theater and straight into a saloon to mourn the loss of my ticket money with some gin. Insufferable.

THE SECRET LIFE OF DENTISTS (2003) ***1/2 Campbell Scott, Hope Davis, Denis Leary, Robin Tunney, Gianna Beleno, Cassidy Hinkle, Lydia Jordan. Filmmaker Alan Rudolph plumbs the depths of dark social comedy with this ingenious adaptation of Jane Smiley's novel 'The Age of Grief' with a skillful screenplay by playwright Craig Lucas about a reasonably happily married couple (Scott and Davis at career highs here showcasing his trademark cerebral comic capabilities and her patented chilly brittleness) whose dental practice together serves a razor-sharp metaphor for their suddenly troubled relationship when the seed of doubt is planted by the assumption of Scott that Davis is having an affair only to be manipulated by his over-active imagination imbued by an alter ego he sees in the form of a sarcastic patient (Leary doing some of his snappy disgruntled shtick to full effect) who allows his blacker sides to show. Family life has never been more keenly observed in this funny and surprisingly poignant look at how marriage can be a true test of faith in a complacent lifestyle of empty fulfillment. Has the feel of a latter day John Cheever parable of suburban hell. Point of interest, this film re-unites the protagonist trio from Scott's experimental film 'Final' a year ago.

First of all, the casting was excellent. This was a difficult script to cast. The story and the characters are what they are. There are two dentists (husband & wife): dentistry like accounting has its stereotypes, but these characters as acted are "type."

The film is about marriage, and the preservation of family in the face of imperfection, disappointment, disillusionment, and reality. Family is good, but difficult. Marriage can be good, but is always challenging.

This story is as long and ponderous as the trials of life. The narration is great, with originality - especially for the brand of story. The subject matter is depicted with monstrous understanding. Only someone who hasn't struggled with glints of success through most of the parts of family and marriage, might not find understanding.

Comedy is rarely so genuine, and the humanity of this work is pervasive. 'Lives of Dentists' is not going to change society, but it may help a few marriages to re-evaluate, and a few families to re-connect.