Dr. T and the Women (2000)

Kind of a divisive film Robert Altman's 'Dr. T and the Women' was criticized by some feminists as being misogynistic and rates a mere 20% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes. Roger Ebert's review of the film address the feminist criticism better then I could but suffice it to say that like Ebert I feel it mostly misplaced.

Richard Gere plays doctor Sullivan Travis, Dr. T for short, a very successful high class Dallas gynecologist, whose overflowing waiting room is attributable as much or more to the fact that he looks like Richard Gere then to his doctoring skills, which appear to be excellent. Dr. T has two grown daughters played by Tara Reid and Kate Hudson, the latter of which is engaged to be married. While shopping for the wedding Dr. T's wife (Farrah Fawcett) wanders off confused in the mall and eventually strips naked to play in the fountain. She has obviously had a breakdown but Dr. T is blind sided when he later learns from a psychologist that the cause is a rare condition effecting women who think their lives are too perfect and  feel they are simply too loved.

Dr. Travis is a man who wants to do the right thing by all who are around him, he is a good, admirable, role model-esque figure who truly cares for his wife, his kids, his patients, his staff, his friends, Things are complicated when deprived of his wife's company he starts developing romantic feelings for the new female golf pro at his country club (Helen Hunt). The large and largely female cast includes the likes of Shelley Long, Laura Dern, Liv Tyler and Lee Grant. 

While obviously not for all tastes I was surprised how much I liked this, was practically swept away by it and think it likely the best performance of Gere's career. He gives a restrained, underplayed performance as a truly decent man perplexed and befuddled by the strangeness of life and a little overwhelmed by all the women around him. ***1/2.