Rhino's DVD Review of "The Secret Lives of Dentists" -- Rhinotainment

[ Show ]

Support VoyForums

[ Shrink ]

VoyForums Announcement: Programming and providing support for this service has been a labor of love since 1997. We are one of the few services online who values our users' privacy, and have never sold your information. We have even fought hard to defend your privacy in legal cases; however, we've done it with almost no financial support -- paying out of pocket to continue providing the service. Due to the issues imposed on us by advertisers, we also stopped hosting most ads on the forums many years ago. We hope you appreciate our efforts.

Show your support by donating any amount. (Note: We are still technically a for-profit company, so your contribution is not tax-deductible.) PayPal Acct: Feedback:

Donate to VoyForums (PayPal):

Life isn't so grand for this pair of dentists in the Alan Rudolph film, The Secret Lives of Dentists. Campbell Scott and Hope Davis play said dentists, David and Dana. After meeting in dental school and falling in love, they go on to marry, open their own practice and have three girls. They have a beautiful home in the city as well as one in the country. It's an ideal life, if you will. Dana also moonlights as an opera singer and before a performance David discovers another man kissing her softly on the neck. Instead of confronting Dana about it, in painfully mild mannered fashion, he leaves the room. David continues to watch her mannerisms and her actions, looking for further signs. It always seems as if Dana has later patients than David and someone has to be home to meet the kids after school. The signs continue to rack up.

On top of all the trouble at home, David has a cantankerous patient named Slater (Dennis Leary) that visits him one day to have a tooth filled. He's a nasty sort who believes that dentistry is a scam. After a confrontation over the loss of the new filling, David imagines Slater to be his conscience and this conscience gives him more will power to say what's on his mind. He becomes more aggressive and less mild mannered, becoming unhinged. You begin to wonder how the eventual showdown between David and Dana will turn out.

I really loved this film. Hope Davis, hot off her bitchy role in About Schmidt, redefines the bitch role in this film. Her self-righteousness while being dishonest to her husband infuriated me as a viewer. Scott is also excellent as the meek dentist who desperately wants his family life to pan out and stay on the "perfect" track that it was on before he discovered his wife and the other man. Tension is the star of this film, as it grows like a fungus throughout. In the third act of the film, the entire family gets sick with the flu and tensions come to a head between David and Dana. Scott carries this scene like a champ and you can't help but feel terrible remorse for his character. Just excellent work.

I can't recommend this film enough. An excellent script and acting, not to mention the Midas touch of Alan Rudolph makes this a can't miss film. ****

[ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ]