A FAVORITE FILM: The Secret Lives of Dentists
I wish to post some information on some of the films that have made an incredible impact on me.... films that serve either as inspirations, strike a deep chord in me, or both.
A couple months ago, I rented a movie that my brother, Curtis, recommended to me. I'd been curious to watch it since I first heard the title (long before he recommended it), but I had no idea what it was about. That movie is "The Secret Lives of Dentists."
Now, I'm not a fan of the director, Alan Rudolph. He had no clue as to how to translate wonderfully scathing satirical prose into cinema when he made Kurt Vonnegut Jr's absolutely brilliant novel "Breakfast of Champions" into a movie. At least David Lynch's admirable film version of "DUNE," is a satisfying treat to those who have read the book, even if it is confusing as hell to those who have not read it. Rudolph's film version of "Breakfast of Champions" takes several of Hollywood's A-list actors, gets excellent performances out of them, but presents a completely sterilized and bland version of Vonnegut's novel -- like a two-hour punchline without the comedic setup. As you watch it, you get the feeling that something very funny is in there, but it is completely escaping you, that you're not being told the joke in its entirety. And if you watch it after reading Vonnegut's novel, you know exactly why the movie's not funny -- because the comedy is not directly in the story Vonnegut tells (and which the film flatly portrays), but in his witty narrative, dry storytelling and biting commentary -- all of which is overwhemingly missing from the film.
But, back to the point, "The Secret Lives of Dentists" absolutely floored me. I became highly emotionally attached to it as the film played out -- which does not happen to me often. By half-way through the film, I knew that by the end it would be either one of my all-time-favorite films, or one of my all-time-least-favorite films, depending upon how honestly and carefully the story's protagonist was depicted.
Thankfully, I was not disappointed.
The film is a painful gem -- it is one of the only films ever to come out of Hollywood that "tells it like it really is" when it comes to the stress and balance and give-and-take of married life and raising children. And, *finally*, a movie that does *justice* to the common married man -- a movie that shows both his inner and outer struggles -- the demons and temptations he must battle on a daily basis -- to maintain an unclouded mind and remaining strong and steady for his children -- on top of dealing with mounting circumstantial evidence of spousal infidelity. It's just brilliant!
In an age where we have multiple cable channels dedicated to women (such as Lifetime and WE), in which most of their programming is dedicated to "bash men" content -- a vomitous continuation of celluloid tripe about cardboard victimized women and the bastardly men who ruin their lives and molest their children -- the movie "The Secret Lives of Dentists" is an outright Godsend! It's the movie that Adrian Lyne's "Unfaithful" had neither the honesty, nor the pragmatism, nor the soberness to be. Despite Unfaithful's excellent production, Richard Gere's character is nothing but a wooden stereotype of a husband, and its lush and erotically charged sex scenes celebrates the infidelity that the story supposedly means to decry. Diane Lane's character doesn't seem to feel a shred of guilt over her actual actions of infidelity as much as she is sorrowful over the disasterous consequences of "getting caught."
"The Secret Lives of Dentists" was all too painfully striking to me. But I like that. I like honest stories that cause me pain. I'm something of a masochist (not in the sexual sense) when it comes to movies and books. I love movies that honestly depict deep emotional suffering. I love movies that have the power to strike deep chords within my soul. The Secret Lives of Dentists is such a film.
I won't attempt to describe the movie's plot here, go elsewhere if you wish to know the general story details of this marvelous film. Just the dialog between the protagonist (played by the underrated Campbell Scott) and the personification of his "id" (played by Dennis Leary) immediately struck a loud and powerful chord deep within me. And the scenes of the protagonist's haunting, overactive, and inescapable imagination hit that chord so deftly.
That's all I wish to discuss on this film, but just by reading what I wrote you can get the idea of how strongly this film impacted me.
A couple months ago, I rented a movie that my brother, Curtis, recommended to me. I'd been curious to watch it since I first heard the title (long before he recommended it), but I had no idea what it was about. That movie is "The Secret Lives of Dentists."
Now, I'm not a fan of the director, Alan Rudolph. He had no clue as to how to translate wonderfully scathing satirical prose into cinema when he made Kurt Vonnegut Jr's absolutely brilliant novel "Breakfast of Champions" into a movie. At least David Lynch's admirable film version of "DUNE," is a satisfying treat to those who have read the book, even if it is confusing as hell to those who have not read it. Rudolph's film version of "Breakfast of Champions" takes several of Hollywood's A-list actors, gets excellent performances out of them, but presents a completely sterilized and bland version of Vonnegut's novel -- like a two-hour punchline without the comedic setup. As you watch it, you get the feeling that something very funny is in there, but it is completely escaping you, that you're not being told the joke in its entirety. And if you watch it after reading Vonnegut's novel, you know exactly why the movie's not funny -- because the comedy is not directly in the story Vonnegut tells (and which the film flatly portrays), but in his witty narrative, dry storytelling and biting commentary -- all of which is overwhemingly missing from the film.
But, back to the point, "The Secret Lives of Dentists" absolutely floored me. I became highly emotionally attached to it as the film played out -- which does not happen to me often. By half-way through the film, I knew that by the end it would be either one of my all-time-favorite films, or one of my all-time-least-favorite films, depending upon how honestly and carefully the story's protagonist was depicted.
Thankfully, I was not disappointed.
The film is a painful gem -- it is one of the only films ever to come out of Hollywood that "tells it like it really is" when it comes to the stress and balance and give-and-take of married life and raising children. And, *finally*, a movie that does *justice* to the common married man -- a movie that shows both his inner and outer struggles -- the demons and temptations he must battle on a daily basis -- to maintain an unclouded mind and remaining strong and steady for his children -- on top of dealing with mounting circumstantial evidence of spousal infidelity. It's just brilliant!
In an age where we have multiple cable channels dedicated to women (such as Lifetime and WE), in which most of their programming is dedicated to "bash men" content -- a vomitous continuation of celluloid tripe about cardboard victimized women and the bastardly men who ruin their lives and molest their children -- the movie "The Secret Lives of Dentists" is an outright Godsend! It's the movie that Adrian Lyne's "Unfaithful" had neither the honesty, nor the pragmatism, nor the soberness to be. Despite Unfaithful's excellent production, Richard Gere's character is nothing but a wooden stereotype of a husband, and its lush and erotically charged sex scenes celebrates the infidelity that the story supposedly means to decry. Diane Lane's character doesn't seem to feel a shred of guilt over her actual actions of infidelity as much as she is sorrowful over the disasterous consequences of "getting caught."
"The Secret Lives of Dentists" was all too painfully striking to me. But I like that. I like honest stories that cause me pain. I'm something of a masochist (not in the sexual sense) when it comes to movies and books. I love movies that honestly depict deep emotional suffering. I love movies that have the power to strike deep chords within my soul. The Secret Lives of Dentists is such a film.
I won't attempt to describe the movie's plot here, go elsewhere if you wish to know the general story details of this marvelous film. Just the dialog between the protagonist (played by the underrated Campbell Scott) and the personification of his "id" (played by Dennis Leary) immediately struck a loud and powerful chord deep within me. And the scenes of the protagonist's haunting, overactive, and inescapable imagination hit that chord so deftly.
That's all I wish to discuss on this film, but just by reading what I wrote you can get the idea of how strongly this film impacted me.
posted by Christian at 9:29 AM
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