Wanting to avoid films like Gigli and Freddy vs. Jason, Iwandered into the sleeper art film The Secret Lives of Dentists andfound an intricate, odd, but gratifying summer surprise.
The film is about a husband and wife who both work in theirdental practice. They live a seemingly boring life as dentists withthree young children until the husband, Dr. Dave Hurst (CampbellScott) sees his wife, Dr. Dana (Hope Davis), having a passionatebackstage scene at her opera recital.
She comes home distraught about the opera's end, but her husbandsuspects that her angst is about the affair she's been having.
Scared of losing his wife if he confronts her, Hurst tries tobottle up his anger of the thought of his wife with another man. Indoing so, he develops a split personality based on one of his rudepatients, Slater, who lets his teeth decay until they hurt andwhose wife has just left him, played by Denis Leary.
This split personality is exactly opposite of Hurst's methodicalnature and he follows Hurst telling him what to say and leading himto imagine the worst about his wife and her affair.
At the brink of madness, Hurst is plagued with visions of hiswife with several men and is growing suspicious of every move.
In an unfortunate, but realistic turn of events, the entirefamily, come down with the flu and suffer hallucinations. Hurstbegins to see the history of his marriage, his dental assistants aslounge singers and daily events the way he wishes they hadhappened.
As the sickness passes, the dentists are forced to confront theissue and come to a conclusion --whatever it may be.
Director Alan Rudolph has an obvious love for the story and thecontemplative nature of a film dealing with such complexrelationships comes through in the filming. It was refreshing tosee characters with real quirks and problems, people who are notall good or all bad, but real.
