The Secret Lives of Dentists (2003)

A melancholy film about husband (Campbell Scott) and wife (Hope Davis) dentists and their marital difficulties. Film focuses on Dr. David Hurst, an unassuming man whose blandness masks an inner complexity. Campbell Scott (George C.'s son) gives an excellent performance here, he can elicit subtle nuance from his stone faced character, watch as he beautifully slow burns through much of the picture, yet conveys a mighty restraint. Hope Davis is good as the wife, she’s got a lot going on to, but its all more distant since the story is from Scott’s point of view.

Notable also are the fantasy elements which balance just right with the near hyper-reality of the everyday life within the troubled marriage. Little is said overtly between these characters about their situation, so we get fantasy and memory sequences, which especially towards the beginning of the film are reminiscent of Preston Sturges’ Unfaithfully Yours. Denis Leary shows up as a difficult patent who Davids character’s subconscious internalizes as a living embodiment of his self loathing, with which he alternately co-operates and does battle. In its repeated juxtaposition of the profound and the mundane this is probably one of cinemas most realistic depictions of married and family life (the sequences in which the family suffers from the flu drag the way the flu drags, but are always interesting). While this film seems to have made it largely under the radar, it’s a true accomplishment worthy of attention. 4 out of 5.