Dr. T & the Women

This film promises so much at the outset and ends up boiling down to much ado about nothing. Richard Gere is excellent as a Texan gynecologist who is just so suave his clients can't keep away from him. These are the least of his female problems though! His wife (Farrah Fawcett) has had a nervous breakdown and resorted to a childlike state, his sister (Laura Dern, who is by far the best performance in the film) has found the cure for her depression over her divorce is in the bottle, his one daughter (Tara Reid) is obsessed with conspiracy theories and his other daughter (Kate Hudson) is getting married in a week but seems more interested in her maid of honour (Liv Tyler) than her intended husband. Along comes Helen Hunt as a the golf club employee with the least complicated life who automatically appeals to him. Anne Rapp's script seems poised on pointing out the fact that men like Dr. T don't understand the women around them because they regard them so highly as women that they worship and not the people with whom they share a planet (at one point Gere delivers a line that says something along the lines of `All women are sacred in their own special way and should be treated as such…' not realizing that this is patronizing and probably why his wife gone insane and his daughters don't really know him), but she never lets the crux of this boil over well enough. Instead, director Robert Altman gives the film the worst ending in history that completely deviates from the entire tone of the film and serves only to enrage his audience. Shelley Long has a hilarious supporting role as Dr. T's secretary.