Review of Secret Lives of Dentists, The

Introduction

A budget re-release of Tartan stock from Prism Leisure, `The Secret Lives of Dentists` - based on the novella, `The Age of Grief` by Jane Smiley - is the story of mild-mannered dentist (like there`s any other kind!) David (Campbell Scott), who, through an act of happenstance, sees events which lead him to believe his wife Dana (Hope Davis), also a dentist, is having an affair with someone at her local theater group. David`s world cracks at this revelation, and his psyche gives way to a fractious, wholly make-believe counterpart who appears in the form of his patient Slater (Denis Leary), and tries to nurse him through the turmoil - with strange and absurd results.

Yes, they may sometimes play it loose with the anaesthetic and be a little rough around your gums, but it appears dentists have feelings too. Go figure!

Video

Anamorphic 1.85:1, and aside from a touch of high chroma and a little softness now and again, most of the problems with the transfer are from the budget compression. There`s evident digital artefacting, particularly late in the film when in one scene, the lovely face of Robin Tunney (who has a very small role in the film) becomes a haze of square pixels. Totally unremarkable, and a tad disappointing on the eyeball front.

Audio

A solitary Dolby Digital 2.0 track, which appears to mixed a little uneven. The dialogue sometimes sounds hushed, while the soundtrack (a great, eclectic mix of tunes) and incidentals can be quite booming, and when they appear this way at the same time, it`s a tiny little disaster of knob-fiddling proportions. For the majority of the film`s running time, it isn`t a major problem, and the stereo track is fairly clear. However, there is one scene at an opera performance that really tests the voluminosity of the track, and here it comes across restrained, and almost tinny. You better believe you can get top-notch sound from a DD 2.0 mix, but sadly you ain`t getting that here.

Features

Prism Leisure trailers and a web link.

Incidentally, if you watch any of the trailers on a Prism Leisure disc, you`ll find they`re generally spiffing compared to the main features which Prism offer (the differences between the `Guy X` trailer here and the `Guy X` feature are far too apparent), which really goes to show how good some of these films look before Prism get their hands on them, and just what a large part high-end authoring plays.

Conclusion

An often humourous, at times almost trippy take on a marriage gradually falling apart at the seams without anyone bothering to do anything about it, `The Secret Lives of Dentists` is punctuated by a couple of terrific central performances (amongst uniformly strong acting) from Campbell Scott and Hope Davis, and is the sort of clever, indie drama that`s likely to pop up on the late-night schedules of BBC2 or Channel 4. David`s descent into utter paranoia over his wife`s possible indiscretions and the state of his marriage is presented visually, in the form of hallucinations, his overactive imagination recreating past events entirely different from how they actually happened, his fantasies and the general weirdness that goes on in the head of a man consumed by delusion, a real window into his emotional state as he puts into gear an action plan to save his marriage - one which clearly needs more than a quick fix. Alan Rudolph`s reserved, gentle, yet clearly masterful direction and reluctance to rush events allows the tale to pan out with a flowing ease, avoiding the need for clichéd cheating spouse scenarios, and opting for a more delicate structure and finespun narrative.

Most of the humour comes from the couple`s three charming daughters, or the typically caustic Denis Leary as the trumpet-playing dental patient Slater, who, after making an impression on David as a no nonsense man`s man, suddenly appears in David`s life as an entirely imaginary, straight-talking sage; a composite of his repressed feelings and the sort of man he wishes he was. In a nod to perhaps modern cinema`s most endearing imaginary character and a wink to post-modernism, make-believe Slater takes on the appearance of Tyler Durden from `Fight Club`, with the hair, shirt, jacket and shades, and spits out the amusing venom that Davis wishes he could. It`s little touches like these, along with a low-key, clearly solid adaptation of the source novella that marks `The Secret Lives of Dentists` as a notch above. There isn`t a whole lot happening for the duration, but its quiet, pondering tale proves to be touching and potent, silly and zany in equal measure, and is certainly worth the time of anyone who enjoys a good, if off-kilter, drama.

Prism Leisure have got their heart in the right place, but do we really want a budget release? A great film deserves a great DVD, and there`s a Tartan edition out there which, with the inclusion of a cast and crew commentary, DTS & DD 5.1 and a year`s grace of discounts, is bound to be not only a better disc overall, but a wiser purchase.