The Secret Lives of Dentists (***)
review by Jon Waterman

Dave has some problems. He has a customer that’s trying to hurt his reputation, three increasingly troublesome daughters and a wife that may be cheating on him. The first two seem to be byproducts of the latter. Dave’s letting his imagination run wild and begins to feel like nothing good can come from the situation at hand.

The film deals with Dave’s mental anxiety by separating the multiple levels of fiction that his mind works with and creates. There is little in the film that would keep anyone’s attention or interest until these psychoses grow more prominent. If you can hang in through the first half, you’ll be rewarded by the second.

All throughout, however, you’ll get to see some wonderful acting. Denis Leary, as the irate client, gives his best performance to date. Sure it’s basically just a rehashing of his stand-up persona, but he tones it down to give it a sense of realism and emotes true bitterness that doesn’t come across in the comedy act. Campbell Scott as Dave stood out in a remarkable way. This is some of the greatest acting I’ve seen all year. His monotone voice makes him first appear as a bland and boring guy. As time goes on, you can see that he expresses himself more with the subtle actions he performs and occasionally with a slight raise of volume in his voice. It’s easy to call Dave dull, but the way he is played is anything but. We also see some good child actors (this is a current trend that I hope continues). The three daughters speak naturally and without staginess.

To be honest, it’s hard to believe the film held my interest all the way through. There’s a solid ten-minute stretch – if not longer – where Dave does nothing but run around taking care of his sick family. He bounces back and forth between his wife and three kids that are all infected with the same flu he has. The entire sequence seems like an eternity and I very much wanted to escape all the screaming and calling out. It’s a true testament to the skills of the writer Craig Lucas that I stuck around to see how it all turned out.

I’d also like to applaud the ending. Despite opening with a rocky and somewhat dull first half complete with hokey “student film-like” narration, it all comes to fruition by the end. It could have gone many ways, most of them horrible. I feel this potentially standard story worked itself out in a believable and very much acceptable way. Any movie dealing with the concept of infidelity has the potential for an ending that only cheats the audience. “The Secret Lives of Dentists” left me satisfied.

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