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David Hurst and his wife seem to have it all, a good upper
middle-class lifestyle supported by their joint dental practice.
However, David starts to suspect that his wife is having an
affair. In his effort to confront the situation in his most
non-confrontational manner he only succeeds in wrapping himself
up in tighter knots of anger and resentment, culminating in
a week when the family are trapped in the house together suffering
from the flu...
Independent
film really is where all the good stuff is coming from these
days. The Secret Lives of Dentists, is a little gem
that appears to have been overlooked on the big screen. Directed
by Alan Rudolph and adapted by Craig Lucas from the original
novel The
Age of Grief by
Jane Smiley, The Secret Lives of Dentists is a witty
portrayal of one mans decent into his own personal purgatory
- though he's not the only one. As an aside, apparently the
age of grief is thirty-eight, that squarely puts me into the
age of unremitting despair, guess it really was all downhill
from twenty-two.
Collectively,
the Hurst's want it all, none of this life/work balance for
them. Dana Hurst fills her days with her dental practice,
her evenings either engaged with her amateur opera group or
trying to juggle being a mother to three children - who appear
to have started an early career as neurotics exhibiting psychosomatic
illnesses.
The space between her and her husband is exemplified by a
scene where she even has to ask David if he likes her or would
even want to know her if they were not sleeping together.
Even their dental practice stands as a metaphor for their
lives, always separated by a brick wall. It is in this space
that David starts to fill his free moments with his own brand
of insecure madness. They have so filled their lives up that
all that has resulted is a vacuum where their marriage should
exist.
As
an audience we never really find out if David's wife is cheating
and to be honest it's fairly immaterial to the plot. This
really is the story of a man who has subsumed his own wants,
desires, hates and prejudices under a veneer of being a thoughtful
man. David has created a space not only between himself and
his wife, but between himself and his real identity. His last
chance is to listen to his acerbic fantasy patient, Slater,
played by Denis Leary, who represents everything that David
denies about himself; Slater is his inner rage, his own Tyler
Durden. Just as in Fight Club David starts to transform
through listening to his alter-ego.
There
are some very funny scenes in the film; David fantasises what
it means to throw your wife out for infidelity. I'm sure,
at some point, we've all wanted to see partners flying through
the air in that manner. Hey, it made me laugh out loud.
Campbell
Scott is great in the role of David; every nuance of his internal
descent into madness is played out on his face with exquisite
subtleness. Denis Leary plays... well, Denis Leary. So, his
performance really depends on whether you like his style -
though I think he was an inspired choice for the role. Best
of all is Robin Tunney. You can really tell, just by looking
at the actress, that internally here is a woman who is so
close to giving up on life as being just a bad idea. She portrays
Laura Hurst as a woman whose dreams are quickly turning to
dust, as her husband's behaviour becomes more and more erratic.
Okay, so the film in certain ways is a little too close to
Fight Club, American Beauty and American
Psycho for comparisons not to be drawn. Whilst all these
films deal with men who subsume their own feelings in the
face of society's expectations, they all have their own tone
and their own place. And lets face it, if your gonna keep
company, you could do worse than the company of these three
films. If you liked the aforementioned movies, there is a
lot in The Secret Lives of Dentists that you will just
love.
Interesting,
that there has been an increase in films dealing with men
who feel that modern society has demasculated them. Maybe
it will start a whole 'I want to be a hunter killer not a
modern man' subgenre of its own.
The
film comes with some good extras. The Gag reel - of course
it has a gag reel, this is after all a comedy- shows just
how much fun they had making the film, and is well worth a
look. There's a bunch of deleted scenes which I presume were
cut due to running time, as the scenes themselves are as spot
on as the rest of the film. The original trailer, I think,
explains why the film wasn't more successful as it misses
the fact that this is a funny film and comes over as some
sort of heavy European art film. Audio is stereo and 5.1 and
DTS 5.1 with English subtitles for the hard of hearing.
So,
it's gonna be a ten. This is a beautifully acted film, the
type they used to make for adults - and in some small corners
still do. Buy it, you'll love it.
 
Charles
Packer
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