DR. T AND THE WOMEN

The women-filled life of a gynecologist is depicted in DR. T AND THE WOMEN, a story about one doctor’s harried experience when the walls of his life start closing in on him.

Dr. Sullivan Travis (Richard Gere of AUTUMN IN NEW YORK), known as “Dr. T” to his friends and co-workers, is extremely busy at his gynecological practice. Each day women fill his waiting room, as well as his own personal life. His wife, Kate (Farrah Fawcett of THE APOSTLE), is a woman gone mad, distracted from life in general. His two daughters, Dee Dee (Kate Hudson of GOSSIP) and Connie (Tara Reid of BODY SHOTS), often demand his attention. Even his wife’s sister, Peggy (Laura Dern of OCTOBER SKY), a bumbling woman going through a divorce, relies on him like a daughter.

It is Bree (Helen Hunt of AS GOOD AS IT GETS), however, a pro-golfer he meets at his country club, who intrigues him the most. On their first day meeting each other, she informs him that his wife is at the police station. He immediately goes to the station where he discovers that his wife has been arrested for dancing naked in a mall fountain. She was supposed to be with Connie and Peggy helping her engaged daughter Dee Dee register for her wedding. Dr. T takes Kate home, realizing that she is undergoing a major mental problem. He decides to put Kate in a mental health facility, where her doctor tells him that Kate has developed the “Hestia Complex,” a disorder “that only affects upper class women who are loved and respected too much by their husbands.” It is a perfection that, supposedly, makes them have no motivation to improve themselves.

Without having his wife around him, Dr. T finds friendship in Bree, a woman that to him is different than all other women. They have dinner together, and, later, fornicate. Meanwhile, back at work, Dr. T’s assistant, Carolyn (Shelley Long of A VERY BRADY SEQUEL), informs him about fighting between patients in the waiting room and that his daughters are waiting to speak to him in another room. They discuss their mother’s problem. After the others walk out of the room, Connie informs him that Dee Dee is a lesbian, and that her maid of honor is actually her old lover. News item after news item slowly infiltrate their way into Dr. T’s life, leading to a menagerie of “bad day’ events that only get worse.

DR. T AND THE WOMEN is a stress-filled movie that is very wearying to watch. There are a few funny plot elements, but they are sadly consumed by a poorly written story. There are many amusing events spliced together, some for shock value. Some of the amusing elements are spliced together for shock value, a trait that can be found in many of Altman’s other movies. It is this quality of storytelling that makes this movie’s supposed ironic ending uncanny. Even with a fairly well-known entourage of acting talent, this movie suffers due to its strong foul language, nudity and sexual content.