A Vida Secreta dos Dentistas

"The Secret Lives of Dentists" is a wonderful evocation of fatherhood and the power of paternal feelings, even while it's showing a marriage in crisis.

Campbell Scott is the antithesis of his ego-centric child-man in "Roger Dodger" to present a loving, if repressed, father and husband who is shook to the very core of his being by suspicions of his wife's infidelity.

Playwright Craig Lucas adapts Jane Smiley's novella (I read "Age of Grief" but only remember it as a brittle slice of realism about marriage and family) by using a similar technique as in "A Beautiful Mind" in having conversations with hyper Denis Leary to let us inside the panic in the husband's mind. Especially well shown, with beautiful editing, cinematography, and music, are his stream-of-consciousness memories of his meeting, courting, and living with his wife.

Hope Davis doesn't get to do much more than Meryl Streep did in "Kramer vs. Kramer," but she adds significantly to her actual lines with luminous acting, especially when we see how happy she is when she's away from her ball-and-chain, though we get very little other explanation for her behavior or choices.

This movie has absolutely the most vivid depiction of what it's like to be stuck at home with sick kids; the very young child actors are the most natural and delightful I've ever seen in the movies. The spreading fever becomes a wonderful metaphor for the state of the marriage and a way to release Dad's fantasy life even more, as well as a realistic family crisis.

Friends of my parents served as dental consultants; their names are spelled wrong, but those aren't the only misspellings in the credits.

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 front page review for this movie makes me wonder if the person actually watched the film. Or perhaps s/he got up to get some popcorn during an especially critical scene, but we definitely do find out whether or not David (Campbell Scott) is correct is in belief that Dana (Hope Davis) is having an affair.

Secondly, this was a good, honest character driven movie. I was shocked at the low overall score, and I wonder whether most moviegoers these days lack the patience or attention span required to sit through a film whose sole purpose is to take the audience on a tour through the characters' relationships and private hopes, fears, and desires. There is virtually no action (in the typical Hollywood sense), no flash, and no monumental act of god or nature that is meant to shock. Instead, this is a film that all of us should be able to relate to on the most simple, human levels. It examines those day to day pieces of life that we take for granted, but which quietly take their toll. Perhaps the most profound line in the film is when Davis' character tells her husband that she expected their marriage to "get wider...but instead it just got smaller." The film reminded me a lot of another character-driven film about misunderstandings, dysfunctional relationships, and the inability to communicate: "You Can Count on Me." Both films are deeply intelligent, and both require their audiences to be as open and honest in what they allow themselves to get from the film as the movie is in giving it. In a nutshell, you will get out of this film what you are willing to put in. That being said, it's not for everyone. If you like fast action, melodrama, and lots of flash and glitter, this film is not for you. In you like a contemplative, honest piece of art, check it out.

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!

This is the closest I have come to getting sick in a theatre since Monty Python's Meaning of Life. The graphic vomiting in this movie is so repulsive and ultimately meaningless that it just overtakes the entire movie. Plus Dennis Leary gets real annoying real fast. Skip this one, but if you see it, skip the popcorn.