Breast Men

When I saw this movie on the shelf at a video store. I rented it for the title alone. I didn't even read the back. I guess because there are leg men, feet men, and by now you can guess what kind I am. I had no idea what I was in for when I started watching this movie. It was directed beautifully and I think David Schwimmer did a good job. However I don't think this movie belonged in the comedy section of the video store. Very few of the scenes in this movie were funny to me. In fact after the movie was over I felt guilty for my original reason for renting this movie. Since then I've watched the movie several times, and each time I feel like I understand how women feel a little better. If you enjoy social documentary type films this is one you have to watch. It will leave you feeling like that movie wasn't that bad at all.

An okay treatise on an interesting subject (wink, nod). The Seventies milieu was well-presented, as were the scenes shot in Houston. David Schwimmer, however, just can't pull off his role as a surgeon. He doesn't seem to be a bad actor, but is just not believable in this part.

David Schwimmer puts aside his likability for this movie about breast implant pioneers. He does a great job as a money-hungry, publicity seeking plastic surgeon with no ethics, no morals, and ultimately, no soul. Chris Cooper, as the member of the partnership team with some little conscience, is equally despicable and equally funny. The 70s references are painfully accurate and anyone who lived then will wince in recognition. A good, if not great, dark comedy, worth seeing just to see David Schwimmer playing a self-centered jerk. By the time his final scene rolls around, you'll cheer for his exit. Overall, not bad ; some sharp commentary, and funny more often than not.

This is a truly odd film, with a style and tone quite unlike any other I've seen; while the first two thirds is darkly comic in a quite gentle, embarrassment-not-pain kind of way, the end descends into a very sombre, serious half hour before the final shocking moment. Presented as a life-story of some (presumably at least semi-fictitious) pioneers of silicon breast enlargement, along with snippets from some "documentary" (real or otherwise, it's not clear) featuring women discussing (and exposing) their breasts, it spans over several decades in a typical up-down-up trajectory. David Schwimmer, looking youthful and a little goofy, plays the lead, a young, ambitious, slightly breast-fixated (here's most of the comedy bits) doctor who comes up with an idea for a new form of breast enhancement. The idea is followed through initial scorn, industrial manipulation, to success and popularity before the hideous problems associated with inserting silicon into the body become clear. Many of the issues involved in the topic are addressed in some form or other, from those who need such surgery due to genuine breast problems down to the question of how far such enhancement can be justified ethically, balancing the desire of women to be perceived as "normal" and attractive against the creation of circus freaks with unnaturally large bosoms. The film does give a good, balanced insight into the subject matter, but the presentation is odd, the mood of the film strangely skewed; neither Schwimmer's lead nor his mentor present particularly likeable characters, the change of tone near the end leaves the viewer with the feeling of having watched a gritty drama rather than the comedy advertised, and the portrayal of women in the piece is far from empowering; those in the film itself are rarely more than caricatures, pairs of breasts to be reconstructed, while the "talking heads" featured in the documentary snippets are more "talking breasts", the lack of faces somehow dehumanising the interviewees and turning them into the freakshow some of them so want to escape (though some are clearly quite happy that their breasts are their defining characteristic). The filmmakers have made a lot of effort here, and it is perhaps a little unfortunate that the balance between humour and serious issue-probing is not well worked. A patchy, interesting but very strange movie which could have been a lot better, it is still worth a watch, but perhaps more as education than entertainment.

I watched this film with the view of learning more about the story than the quality of the film itself, but was pleasantly surprised. The black humour is subtle, but enjoyable. David Schwimmer starts out in his usual "little lost boy"-type routine but develops nicely into the role. Plus, it's always nice to see the gorgeous Lisa Marie on screen.