Starring Richard Gere, Helen Hunt, Kate Hudson, Tara Reid, Farrah Fawcett, Liv
Tyler, Laura Dern, Janine Turner, Shelley Long, Robert Hays, Matt Malloy, Lee Grant.
Written and Directed by Robert Altman.
Dr. Sully Travis (Gere), or Dr. T as all his many admiring women call him, is living
the perfect life. He is "the lucky kind" of doctor - a gynecologist. He is surrounded
by women all day, including his loyal receptionist Carolyn (Long) who has
a crush on him, and his patients who he treats with loving care and who treat him
with the same affection. He has a loving wife Kate (Fawcett) whom he adores and
two lovely daughters Connie (Reid) and Dee Dee (Hudson) who worship their dad.
But Dr. T's perfect world starts to unravel. Sully's sister-in-law Peggy (Dern),
has moved in with her three kids, and has a compulsion to please everyone, which
she can't seem to do, leading her to consume as much champagne as she can find.
Kate is starting to lose it. Dancing naked in a mall fountain, she gets committed
to a psychiatric hospital. Her diagnosed problem - she is loved too much by her
husband, and has lost her identity. Dee Dee is in the midst of planning her wedding
with the help of Peggy and Connie. Dee Dee's maid of honour Marilyn (Tyler) arrives
in town, and Connie is dead set against her being in the wedding for reasons that
soon become obvious. Amidst the chaos Dr. T meets Bree (Hunt), the new golf pro
at his club, his only refuge from his busy practice and deteriorating family. She
recently left the professional golf circuit because she had lost the joy from golf
(I was not aware there was joy in golf). Both want to make changes in their lives.
Dr. T And The Women is a middle-class satire of people with too much money
and not enough sense. Virtually all the women patients are taken care of by someone,
with nothing to do. And almost all of them are not very happy. The film is a direct
indictment of the desire of some women to find Mr. Right (the rich kind) and be
taken care of, and of the men who think that taking care of women so they don't
have to work or lift a finger will make the women happy. Dr. T goes out of his
way to treat women kindly - he gives his friends a hard time for their cavalier
attitude towards women, saying each woman is unique and special, "saints" that
should be put on a pedestal. But as his life and family begins to fall apart, and
as he finds Bree does not exactly respond as he expects, he re-evaluates what is
important. And he finds it landing in a poor village in the middle of the desert.
The cast is first rate. Helen Hunt is excellent as the free spirited and very
independent Bree. And Hudson is great as the sweet, spoiled daughter who refuses
to think about any of the consequences of what she does. And Tyler is as good as
she's been as the mousy, unsure maid of honour. Their relationship is touching
and handled sympathetically. Even Richard Gere is solid as the harried Dr. T whose
life is unravelling around him. Dr. T And The Women is a funny, well-observed
look at upper-middle class people not very happy with their lives.
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