Dave (Campbell Scott) and Dana (Hope Davis) are both dentists who work in the same office. They have been married for ten years and have three daughters. Dave senses that his wife has grown more distant but he just doesn’t know what to do about it. He suspects that Dana may be having an affair with the musical director of the amateur opera troupe she sings in. He secretly happens upon them having an intimate moment. Then their youngest daughter falls into a snit and refuses to have anything to do with her mother; she wants only Dave. As if he didn’t have enough pressure, this harassed dentist is being given a hard time by Slater (Dennis Leary), an unhappy patient who has had a filling fall out. He badmouths Dave in a public place. Suddenly Dave’s mind is filled with a crazy series of fantasies, improvisational takes on his unhappiness, and memories from the past. Worst of all, Slater, a trumpet player who’s been dumped by his wife, has entered his consciousness as an alter ego who keeps pushing Dave to act out his darkest thoughts.
What makes this comedy stand head and shoulders above anything else this year is the witty and oftentimes hilarious screenplay by Craig Lucas (Longtime Companion, Prelude to a Kiss) based on The Age of Grief, a novella by Jane Smiley. The film is directed by Alan Rudolph, a master explorer of the nuances of sexual politics and the tricky waters of marriage. Here, thanks to the brilliant screenplay and the top drawer performances, he hits high stride with a movie that captures the essence of many family experiences.
Campbell Scott turns in a masterful depiction of the repressed and angry Dave, a man whose mind is playing some dirty tricks upon him. He is furious with Dana for betraying him but unwilling to confront her with what he knows, lest she walk out the door and leave him. In a very telling five-day siege against the flu, which passes from one family member to the next, his emotions and parenting skills are stretched to the limits. At one point, he even hallucinates that his dentist assistant Laura (Robin Tunney) is appearing in his home as a sultry chanteuse singing "Fever."
Hope Davis is credible as a woman who feels the zip has long gone out of their relationship. At one point she tells him she imagined marriage as moving into cinemascope, expanding as the years went on, but instead she is experiencing it as getting smaller and smaller. Of course, Dave’s uptightness and his refusal to loosen up sends waves of tension throughout the household. A solicitous physician implies that their oldest daughter’s stomach problems are related to arguments Dave and Dana are having in front of the children. A final interesting touch is the use of references to teeth as an analogy for relationships.
The Secret Lives of Dentists is a snappy, well-acted, and inventive comedy that hits the mark as a deft and telling portrait of a marriage under siege.
The DVD special features include an audio commentary with director Alan Rudolph, star Campbell Scott, and producers David Newman and George VanBuskirk; some deleted scenes and a gag reel; and the Sundance Channel "Anatomy of a Scene."
