Review: Dr. T and the Women

Length: Running time: 121 minutes.

MPAA Rating: R

Special Features on the DVD:

• Widescreen DVD Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1, anamorphic.
• Commentary by director Robert Altman and the cast, along with an interview with Altman.
• Production notes and the film’s trailer.
• English audio track along with French dubbed and Spanish subtitled versions.
• Commentary by composer Lyle Lovette that accompanies an isolated music track.

Let me say up front that I liked this comedy/romance, but then I’m a big fan of director Robert Altman and think his style of ensemble-driven filmmaking plays particularly well on video. But be careful who you discuss this film with: It can spark heated debate.

The movie features witty dialogue, scenes splashed with vibrant color, sumptuous costuming, and breezy music by Lyle Lovett, but there are nevertheless some dark undercurrents. The film has a fable-like quality, and I would characterize it as a cross between a cautionary allegorical tale and a comedy of manners. It’s not Altman’s best movie, but I found it to be one of his most entertaining and enjoyable ones, even though I occasionally wanted to reach into the screen and try to shake some sense into the title character.

Dr. T is Dr. Sully Travis (Richard Gere), a Dallas gynecologist who puts women on so high a pedestal it’s inevitable something will eventually bring his vision of them crashing down to earth. He’s a well-meaning man, but not a likable character, and he’s what makes the film such a catalyst for controversy. Arguments could go on for hours, cataloguing everything that’s wrong with him. And to make matters worse, he’s a person who is unwilling or unable to change. Even after his illusions about women are dealt a series of shattering blows, it’s doubtful he has learned anything at all.

Dr. Travis’ popularity with his patients often has his waiting room teetering on the brink of chaos. Directing traffic is his adoring head nurse (Shelley Long), who keeps track of which of Dr. T’s affluent patients awaits him in the Ann Richards examination room, the Phyllis George examination room, and the Belle Starr examination room.

On the home front, Dr. T is happily married and the father of two young adult daughters. One of the daughters (Kate Hudson) is making elaborate preparations for her upcoming wedding. His other daughter (Tara Reid) is apparently a docent at The Conspiracy Museum, where one of her duties is to conduct walking tours of the area where John F. Kennedy was assassinated.

The swirl of activity that always seems to be encircling Travis resembles pandemonium, yet Dr. T is happy being surrounded by all these females because he worships women. At one point he remarks, "Women, by nature, are saints. They're sacred and should be treated that way." This illustrates how poorly Dr. T really understands the complex creatures he believes he knows so well, and in many ways the film is about the prices to be paid by this man for his well-intentioned, good-natured smugness. In fact this seems to be his fatal flaw. As the story unfolds it becomes increasingly comic-tragic because of his unwillingness to change or loosen his tight grip on his idealization of women, even when faced with a series of heart-breaking reality checks.

Before long, Dr. T’s seemingly perfect life starts to unravel. While at an upscale shopping mall, his wife (Farrah Fawcett) comes apart emotionally, regresses into a childlike state, and frolics naked in a fountain in front of a Godiva shop. After his wife is institutionalized, he becomes romantically involved with a golf pro (Helen Hunt), but he has trouble adjusting to the kind of independent woman that she represents. Finally, the many different threads of the story are masterfully woven together on the day of his daughter’s wedding, followed by a slightly surreal, stunning dreamlike sequence that brings the film to a conclusion that’s open to a variety of explanations. How you interpret the ending is a bit of an ink-blot test that probably reveals as much about you as it does about the movie.

Though hardly a perfect film, Dr. T and the Women has a lot going for it. There’s plenty of wit in the fast-moving dialogue. In addition, the movie has a plot that deftly interweaves the threads of its multiple characters. One of the pleasures of this movie is the overall quality of the performances. Richard Gere is just right in the title role, and all of the actresses mentioned earlier, as well as Laura Dern and Lee Grant, are terrific. I highly recommend Dr. T and the Women.