DR. T AND THE WOMEN *** (2000) Directed by Robert Altman. Written by Anne Rapp. Photography, Jan Kiesser. Editing, Geraldine Peroni. Production design, Stephen Altman. Costume design, Dona Granata. Music, Lyle Lovet. Produced by Robert Altman and James McLindon. Cast: Richard Gere (Dr. T), Helen Hunt (Bree), Farrah Fawcett (Kate), Laura Dern (Peggy), Shelley Long (Carolyn), Tara Reid (Connie), Kate Hudson (Dee Dee), Liv Tyler (Marilyn), Robert Hays (Harlan), Matt Malloy (Bill), Andy Richter (Eli), Lee Grant (Dr. Harper), Janine Turner (Dorothy). An Artisan Entertainment release. 122 minutes. This film is rated R. (sex, nudity)
In recent times, I cannot remember a film by a first-rank maker creating as much controversy as "Dr. T." Its reception runs from admiration to vilification. The title's doctor is a Dallas, Texas gynecologist whose clientele are chic, wealthy, idle, upper-class ladies. They all love him, as does his large staff. His popularity is immense --for good reasons.
He is clearly a very good OB-GYN.. His interest in his patients is extraordinary, personal, sincere as well as intelligent. Though overworked he is also patient with the patients. And if the women love him, he loves them back. And he looks like Richard Gere.
The ladies, from young to old, mostly know one another or are friends, practice air kissing on occasion, fill his waiting room to capacity, chat and gossip among themselves, request Dr. T with persistance, keep him non-stop busy. The women are all nice looking, some even beautiful, .Janine Turner is spectacular. But, cleverly, none of those ladies is shown as a vamp.
The place is like a women's club. It's also bedlam where T and his fantastically good staff manage to keep their heads above water, their cool, their genuine smiles, and their humanity.
The whole scene is as Altmanesque as can be. The director juggles characters, dialogue (overlapping, synchronized, credible), images and action with his usual, impressive skill. The viewer may be kept busy following things and people, but there's clarity and method in this madness.
One might normally suspect that within this framework are affairs between T and "his" women. But the catch is that Dr.T worships and deifies women, calls them saints, respects them even at their nuttiest, and is crazy about his own wife Kate (Farrah Fawcett) whom he has always pampered.
In such films the overall atmosphere and numerous characters can be more important and interesting than the main story line. Here the start has a magnificently roving camera that follows Dallas ladies through an upscale Dallas mall -- ironically, critically but not cattily. It's an A-plus sequence in which a Tiffany's and other elegant sites are like a fine orchestral score.
At the mall Kate behaves oddly, takes off her clothes and dances in a pool. Back in the Travis home, she refuses her husband's sexual advances. "We can't do this any more. It's not nice." She is diagnosed as suffering from a Hestia Complex. In ancient Greece, Hestia, goddess of the hearth, pursued by Apollo and Poseidon decided to be a virgin forever. The complex--assuming it exists -- is caused by too much male love and attention and results in a retreat to a child-like state. The subject despises, then rejects love.
That's the kernel of the plot. With Kate apparently not quickly curable, Dr.T distracts himself a bit by continuing to meet his buddies for golf and hunting. He meets the new assistant golf coach Bree (Helen Hunt). Writ as large as a sky-writing plane's message is an affair, predictable yet handled with some originality.
The film, orchestrated as well a choreographed, thickens with the themes of T's grown-up daughters, one a guide for a Conspiracy Museum (on JFK's assassination), the other a pretty-by-the-numbers cheerleader who is about to be married.
Other ingredients are thrown into the sauce gradually. Kate; wedding preparations; T's head-nurse (Shelly Long) who is in love with him; weird patients; lesbianism; an outdoor wedding ceremony attended by a 20 to 1 ratio of women to men--in stormy weather; much else. I will not disclose the film's progress, surprises, its peculiar last parts, and the shocking (to some) ending which is upbeat and a kind of epiphany for Dr. T. I can't say more.
All this has fine, precise acting by all. Gere who bears the main load, plays quietly and discreetly. The movie also has originality, imagination, creativity and a host of clever bits. In one, a chain-smoking patient whom T allows exceptionally to smoke during her examination. Then he's had enough and hands the ashtray to a nurse... who disposes of it but not before taking one puff behind T's back.
There is also a plethora of filmic and non-filmic in-jokes and references, gratuitous, often elusive, but amusing. Dr. T's name is Sullivan Travis, which recalls the great 1941 comedy by Preston Sturges, "Sullivan's Travels." Behind the pool where Kate dances nude is a Godiva store. The storm in the last part of the film seems to wink at the Helen Hunt-starring "Twister" (1996). Hunt's name Bree is like Jane Fonda's in "Klute" (1971). Jokes are made about Brie the cheese, though this movie is not cheesy. And much else.
The main objection to this work is Robert Altman's alleged misogyny. It is true that hardly any women look really intelligent here but the few men don't either, and that's not unusual in movies today. True, few of the women are not charmers, but in the small roles of T's assistants and especially Shelley Long's, they are. . (Hunt has charms for Gere but there's a twist ) Yes, the ladies are from Dallas (though few sound like Texans) as are the girls in the discreetly ludicrous cheerleading class, but they could have been in many other wealthy cities.
All this reminds me of an interview with Clint Eastwood who said that he did not expect his "Unforgiven" to be a hit. "It's too intelligent." .
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