The Secret Lives of Dentists (2002)
Directed by Alan Rudolph
Written by Craig Lucas
Starring Campbell Scott, Hope Davis, Denis Leary
Release Date N/A
Published November 25th, 2002
Campbell Scott is one of those rare actors with an eye for a good script. His deliberateness has made him a darling of the indie scene ever since 1991's Dying Young and 1992's Singles threatened to pigeonhole him as a romantic leading man. His varied roles in films include Big Night, The Spanish Prisoner and last years remarkable if little seen Roger Dodger. For his latest role, Scott has taken yet another chameleon like turn. In The Secret Lives of Dentists, Scott plays a role that is the exact opposite of his role in Roger Dodger but with an equal amount of skill and bravery.
In Secret Lives, Scott is David Hurst, a dentist married to another dentist Dana Hurst (Hope Davis). They live together with three daughters and work together at their family dental practice. Like many marriages, the surface is perfect but simmering beneath is a cauldron of unrequited emotion and misunderstood feelings. As Dana is preparing for a local theater performance, David is being accosted by a difficult patient played by Denis Leary. Adding to David's problems is his youngest daughter who will only stop crying when he is around and refuses her mother.
With all of these distractions, it's not surprising that David is slow to realize his wife's straying affection. Dana is leaving work at odd hours, returning home later than expected and the final clue comes when David visits her backstage at her theater performance and sees her kissing another man. Dana has no idea that he saw her and the balance of the film is David deciding how to confront his wife.
This is not a new story, we've seen numerous takes on this same subject. What is different however is Campbell Scott's measured, intellectual performance and director Alan Rudolph's deft mix of David's inner and outer worlds. Denis Leary is at first a character in reality then he becomes part of David's conscience, functioning as a physical expression of David's unexpressed anger. Who better than the fireball comedian Leary to play rage?
The Secret Lives Of Dentists functions on a psychic level where most films can't. The script by Craig Lucas, adapted from a novella by Jane Smiley, plays out David's psyche with wit and smarts and without the gimmicky feel that usually comes with such a subject. Aside from one dream sequence in which Robin Tunney, David's dental assistant, sings the song Fever while Leary plays the trumpet, the film avoids obvious flights of fancy.
I really loved how the film dealt with David's inner turmoil as it's main story and balanced it with scenes of everyday family life that in reality wouldn't pause for marital crisis. The family in the film has everyday problems goings on. Kids have to get to school and bills have to be paid. And when one of the girls gets the flu, the illness works it's way through the whole family, a very real life relatable moment that would be pushed aside in most films in favor of heightened melodrama. Here, this detail is a reminder of all of the things constantly competing for everyone's attention.
This is a terrific cast, Campbell Scott particularly. In a role that is a polar opposite of last year’s Roger Dodger, Scott shows range that his father, the legendary George C. Scott, would envy. The knock on Campbell Scott early in his career was that he would never achieve his father's powerful presence. What Campbell doesn't have in presence he makes up for in bravery, range and acting. Roger Dodger should have been his first Academy Award nomination, but it wasn't. Here's hoping that injustice can be made right by nominating him for this role
