There’s something very fuzzy and romantic about having Alan Rudolph in the world. Gifted with a singular perspective, the former Altman protégé belongs to a class of valiant directors that keep on keeping on, never quite attaining the prominence their work frequently demands. They are, without question, in it for the love because it sure as hell ain’t the money, and it's taken more than three years for The Secret Life Of Dentists to see the light of day.
Happily, Rudolph’s credentials as a struggling director – or artist, if you want to be grand about it – in an industry rivalled only by the petrochemical sector for cynicism is not the only reason to be cheerful here. Secret Lives is a keen drama starring Campbell Scott and Hope Davis as contented married dentists thrown into chaos once he witnesses her kissing another man. Skipping between hallucinated infidelities, venomous pronouncements from Scott’s noxious alpha-male alter-ego (Dennis Leary) and domestic disquiet, Rudolph’s portrait of marital frailty is chillingly, terrifyingly, blood-curdlingly complete, though surprisingly witty.
Scott has rarely been more deadpan and contained, while Ms. Davis makes a much better adulteress (I salute you, madame!) than her slightly homely indie resume might have led one to suppose.
It is, to say the very least, considerably more arresting viewing than the title suggests.