Rating: 
Summary: Some-what depressing, but a good look at marriage.
Review: I love Indie movies, "Why?" you may ask? Because they usually much better at depicting real humans then Hollywood films are. And okay, some indie films are just as bad as Hollywood films, that's a given, you *always* have to sift through the crap to find the good stuff. But as with anything, when you find the good stuff, the search was worth it.! So, anyways, I will say that to me, this movie was fairly depressing. It moved fairly slow, but it fit the film, and it went by pretty fast. I felt the relationship between Dave and Dana was handled really well. And the performances by Campbell Scott and Hope Davis were wonderful. All the acting in the film was great, I especially like Denis Leary in this movie, and generally I dislike him(A LOT), but he's PERFECT for the role he plays here.! I just like watching what Dave is going through, it just seems what I'd be thinking if my husband were cheating on me. Or some-what like thoughts I've had about people hating me. Its fun watching him play-out scenarios in his mind as well. I mean generally the main problem with marriages and many relationships is lack of communication. That's especially true in this film, they've gotten so wrapped up in they're day-to-day lives they don't have very much real communication. When one of them tries to communicate the other isn't in the mood to listen. And of course their's the whole affair thing with his wife, so she is generally unreceptive of his attempts at affection and communication. The only thing I dislike about the movie is just how unsympathetic it is. But it makes sense, because if you're cheating on somewhat you're not really thinking much about their feelings, or if you are, you block it out. Oh well, overall I'd say this is worth a view for people who want an honest look at marriage. It makes you realize just how much work a marriage takes. :) God Bless ~Amy
Rating:
Summary: Some-what depressing, but a good look at marriage.
Review: I love Indie movies, "Why?" you may ask? Because they usually much better at depicting real humans then Hollywood films are. And okay, some indie films are just as bad as Hollywood films, that's a given, you *always* have to sift through the crap to find the good stuff. But as with anything, when you find the good stuff, the search was worth it.! So, anyways, I will say that to me, this movie was fairly depressing. It moved fairly slow, but it fit the film, and it went by pretty fast. I felt the relationship between Dave and Dana was handled really well. And the performances by Campbell Scott and Hope Davis were wonderful. All the acting in the film was great, I especially like Denis Leary in this movie, and generally I dislike him(A LOT), but he's PERFECT for the role he plays here.! I just like watching what Dave is going through, it just seems what I'd be thinking if my husband were cheating on me. Or some-what like thoughts I've had about people hating me. Its fun watching him play-out scenarios in his mind as well. I mean generally the main problem with marriages and many relationships is lack of communication. That's especially true in this film, they've gotten so wrapped up in they're day-to-day lives they don't have very much real communication. When one of them tries to communicate the other isn't in the mood to listen. And of course their's the whole affair thing with his wife, so she is generally unreceptive of his attempts at affection and communication. The only thing I dislike about the movie is just how unsympathetic it is. But it makes sense, because if you're cheating on somewhat you're not really thinking much about their feelings, or if you are, you block it out. Oh well, overall I'd say this is worth a view for people who want an honest look at marriage. It makes you realize just how much work a marriage takes. :) God Bless ~Amy
Rating:
Summary: Modern Father Knows Best
Review: I was amazingly moved and impressed by this movie -- but only after I finished watching it. During the movie, it does plod at an incredibly petty pace, to quote the Bard. But after the picture was over, I realized that the laborious pace of the film reflected the lives of these two characters.
I was greatly impressed by Campbell Scott in the TV movie with Christine Lahti called "The Pilot's Wife." As a result, I tuned into the fact that he is the son of George C. Scott & Colleen Dewhurst, although one can't really see that by his looks. He's also worked in "The Spanish Prisoner," "The Imposters" & "Lush." His career has grown as he's begun to also produce films, as he does here on this project.
The thing that I came to so value about this movie was how excellently it reflects on the reality of a man who dearly loves being a husband & father. It is not always easy, nor is it always glorious & romantic, just as this film was neither of these. Lost in the march of life, the husband's fantasies help him to work his way through his life. There's one scene where fantasy Dennis Leary asks David Hurst (Campbell Scott) why he's doing this. Hurst replies that he went to college, studied dentistry and worked hard just so he could have this. He says it even though he's in the midst of a highly emotional trauma in his marriage. It seemed so utterly real to me and incredibly poignant.
The other thing I came to value about this film was how important a father's role is in a family and how good of a caregiver a dedicated father can be to his children. Yes, the whole ongoing flu sequences were laborious and seemed to be a trail of never-ending vomit, but through it all Hurst never wavers in his dedication to his wife or his kids, even when he feels so very ill. For me, this reflected the strength of a father's love. I think Campbell Scott wonderfully portrayed this aspect of the film.
His wife, Dana Hurst, is played by Hope Davis who has been in "Daytrippers," "Next Stop Wonderland," "Kiss of Death" with Nicholas Cage & "About Schmidt." I found disturbing her detachment from her children, but came to understand that she was also going through a tremendous crisis of identity. Whether her amateur opera acting was a ploy for outside interests or to find romantic stimulation, I don't know. But for me the climax of the movie, which came without thunder, was all the more powerful. David Hurst says that he has just one question, "Are you staying or leaving?" For all else, he can forgive. She says, "I'm staying." And that is the climax. For Hurst, it's enough, all he's wanted. As a parting shot, he says that he wants to know who it was, but not what they did.
Dennis Learly was adept at being obnoxious. As he moved from the dental chair to David Hurst's fantasy life, he executed it flawlessly. The deleted scene on the DVD where Leary scrubs Hurst's back in the bathtub was appropriately cut since it suggests a rather strange fantasy, which is not where the film was headed. But the outtakes are a hoot! Robin Tunney as the dental assistant has a small but valuable role in the script. The children all do excellent jobs. The youngest provides great comic relief by slapping those that distress her.
All in all, I wound up loving this film. I was about ready to turn it off several times, but I'm glad I hung with it. Enjoy!
Rating: 
Summary: A real waste of time!
Review: I've studied screenwriting, and I see about 50 movies a year. In my opinion, this film was a real waste of my time and money.I didn't care what happened to any of the characters, who ranged from criminally annoying (the youngest daughter) to terminally boring (the Campbell Scott character). Same goes for story. I mean, what was the point of all the sturm und drang? I went because I've seen both Scott and Leary turn in some really fine performances. Both were wasted in this "much ado about nothing" film.
Rating:
Summary: Alan Rudolph's Latest!
Review: Inventive and engaging Alan Rudolph film starring Campbell Scott, Hope Davis and Denis Leary. Leary gives one of his best performances in a clever supporting role. The film has excellent cinematography and choices of music throughout. The only real problem with the movie is the ending seemed a bit too ambiguous. But this is definitely worth seeing and is indeed thought provoking.
Rating:
Summary: Drilling down to the meaningful core of life
Review: It's not obvious whether Dr. David Hurst (if I remember the last name right), DDS, is a schlub, a poor slob, or a strong and solid human being worthy of emulating. The fact that he turns out to be one of them is a result of the way the script and his life turn out. Might have reversed. He is played by co-producer Campbell Scott, who I'd never heard of, a very fine and quite subtle actor, most immediately comparable to Kevin Kline. As this movie is somewhat comparable to the recent Kline vehicle, LIFE AS A HOUSE. His wife, Dr. Dana Hurst, DDS, played by the lovely and so-talented Hope Davis, is most immediately comparable to woman-actor Glenn Headly. It's a story of trust under deepening problems and tensions. Trust that David will not relinquish. Trust in the essential goodness of his marriage, despite current problems. Artfully, these tensions are enhanced by a writer of subtlety: the toddler daughter who hangs on daddy's neck like a tick--slaps him, twice. We feel it. Then the whole family gets the flu, sequentially. Then he rushes one daughter, in a panic, to the emergency room, which is devoid of personnel. We all panic. Denis Leary seems to be the "star" and does nice quiet work as the conscience of David, at first annoying like a cut that keeps bleeding, then soothing like a gel antibiotic under a clean bandage. If you're lucky enough to have it shown where you live, go go go. I think it is technically a Hollywood film. Yet there is NO VILLAIN.
Rating: 
Summary: A Mom's Perspective
Review: My husband rented this film. When I saw that Scott and Davis were in the film, I had high expectations. We put the kids to bed and nestled onto the couch in front of the TV.
Thirty minutes into the film, I started to nod off. My husband had left the room out of boredom. OK, I thought. Stick it out; it's got to get better. And it did, I guess. It's certianly not the worse film I've seen. The actors did a pretty good job. They portrayed their characters' repressions with painful realism.
As a mom, two things popped out at me right away. I'm not the type of person who nit-picks films. Having two little ones, we don't have time to watch movies closely enough to see flaws. We're lucky to get to see any movies at all. Anyway, as a mom, two things struck me as wrong. First was the car seat for the youngest child. A child in a crib shouldn't be in car seat that slides across the back seat of Dad's car while the kids are getting in. The second thing was when the main character said INFLUENZA to his doctor friend when the doctor suggested that the stomach virus had a psychological origin. Influenza is an upper respitory virus, not a stomach virus. Parents whose kids have had upper respitory viruses (which is the majority of us)know this. The slow and deliberate annunciation just made the error more painful to watch. It makes you second guess whether this guy was really in a medical field and whether he was really connected to his family's everyday life experiences.
One thing that was very realistic was the pre-sex scene in the family room. It was very male oriented, unsexy and lacked non-verbal communication. Just what you'd expect from a couple so disconnected. It gave you a chance to sympathize with the wife and understand why she may have started looking elsewhere.
Anyway, the movie was well acted but moved too slowly. It wasn't the lack of special effects or grander than life characters that did this movie in. It was the lack of dialogue. You never really knew what was going on in the wife's head which was frustrating. The movie had a hard time delivering enough info to the viewer to keep them interested in the characters.
Rating:
Summary: strangely touching,and totally quirky
Review: Ok, so this movie is definately not for everyone.A lot of people will dub it "boring" because it's about nothing more than two married dentists and how they deal with their family life.When the husband(played very nicely by Campbell Scott), finds out his wife(Hope Davis,great, as usual) is cheating on him, his alter ego(Dennis Leary) beings making frequent visits into the husband's mind.Not to mention the couple have three awfully annoying daughters who scream, and shout, and throw tantrums regularly.All the actors are entirely likable,and it was nice to watch a group of less known actors take over the screen.They did a wonderful job. This all sounds pretty boring, and kind of wierd.And it is kind of wierd, but if you like slightly unconventional films that manage to be sweet,and witty,and touching, and true to life see this film.
Rating:
Summary: Quirky, and strangely touching
Review: Okay, there are these two dentists who work together, husband and wife. And they've got three adorable little girls - well, 2 of them are adorable; the youngest has a nasty habit of smacking people and pitching tantrums, but that's not the point. The point is that these 2 nice adults who have a successful and 'happy' life together are coming unraveled. The wife, beautifully played by Hope Davis (Jack Nicholson's daughter in About Schmidt, remember?), is bored or in lust or whatever, cuz it quickly becomes clear that she's involved in an affair.
The husband, stoically played by Campbell Scott, realizes this fact very early in the movie, so it's not about a secret. At some point, he understands and says aloud that it's not about him; it's about her. And he makes the decision to just let it play itself out.
But there's this other guy who pops up like a mystery guest...er, ghost... to act out the alter ego, the really pissed-off side of Scott's reaction to this mess. This surreal guest/ghost who keeps appearing in odd places and keeps doing odd things (he pops off a squirrel with a BB gun and serves it up fried, including tail, to the husband) is a particularly unpleasant patient in the dental practice, and he says and suggests all the stuff that the husband might say or do - if he were a different kind of person.
It's weird (lots of stuff going on inside the mind of the husband that's dramatized for our viewing pleasure); it's funny as all get out at times; but in the end, it's oddly touching and charming. Give it a try: that's my recommendation.
Rating: 
Summary: What was the point?
Review: Plot: A man suspects his wife of cheating on him. He's afraid to confront her because, as he tells his "imaginary friend" repeatedly, if he confronts her and she admits that she's having an affair, then they'll have to do something about it. By ignoring it, he hopes that his wife will work through it on her own and come back to him. That's the plot. This is a very frustrating movie because you keep wanting to make this guy talk to his wife, or make her talk to him. But they don't. And, meanwhile, they have three young daughters who all get the stomach flu and throw up a lot, so there's a lot of scenes of the main character cleaning up vomit while wondering if his wife is having an affair. Throughout the movie, I kept thinking that eventually something would happen to sort of pull the whole movie together. Sooner or later, the husband and wife were going to talk, or break up, or something. But the ending, although it does provide closure to the story, doesn't really tell us anything new. Not worth your time....
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