At 75 years young, Robert Altman has been a Hollywood maverick for three decades and counting, which is still apparent in his latest effort, "Dr. T & the Women," a heartfelt and amusing parable about the absurd existence of a gynecologist.
Dr. T and the Women - R
Starring:
Richard Gere, Helen Hunt, Farrah Fawcett and Kate Hudson
Directed by:
Robert Altman
Now playing:
Showplace 12 West
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Altman turned to scribe Anne Rapp, who also wrote Altman's "Cookie's Fortune," to create the world of Dr. T (Richard Gere), Dallas's most trusted and revered gynecologist, which begins to crumble from the start of reel one when his wife (Farrah Fawcett) goes bonkers and continues through to the rain-soaked catastrophe that is his daughter DeeDee's (Kate Hudson) wedding.
Dr. T has an office and household full of females ready to embrace him every day. And who better to play Dr. T than the steely-haired Gere, an actor with radiant looks who can attract a flock of women with just a wink of an eye? Even though Gere's passive acting style has often been suspect, it fits in perfectly with the blissful, easy-going existence of Dr. T, resulting in one of Gere's finest performances.
In addition to Gere, Fawcett and Hudson, the talents of Laura Dern, Helen Hunt, and, most notably if not surprisingly, Shelley Long, among others, construct yet another strong ensemble Altman cast.
For all of "Dr. T & the Women's" strengths, there are a couple of major weaknesses. Rapp often relies too heavily on flat humor to carry the story along. And the film is once again a derivation of past Altman movies, from a nude woman prancing about in a fountain -- Fawcett here and Sally Kellerman previously in "Brewster McCloud" -- and a wedding gone awry, a la "A Wedding."
"Dr. T & the Women" is a new chapter in Altman's oeuvre, though. Rarely do any of his films contain a glimmer of hope, but this film's fantastical ending seems to offer one up, especially by destroying the constant in almost every Altman film -- at least one character must physically die.
In the end, "Dr. T & the Women" is a Robert Altman film, albeit a minor one, that displays the cinematic deftness that has always been the director's calling card, leaving this movie some notches above a majority of celluloid Americana circa 2000.
