Docteur T et les femmes

Robert Altman's latest is not a frothy romantic comedy about a womanizer as the ads suggest. It is instead a deceptively simple, yet busy, multi-layered, character study of a Truffaut-like character (the Man who Loved Women) who has nearly become a martyr to the women that surround him.

Dr T. loves his wife too much, he's successful and looks like Richard Gere. He's remained faithful to the wife who has become more and more spoiled and selfish and now suffers from a fictional malady which causes her to regress to childhood behavior- which includes jumping into a fountain in a crowded mall, and stripping off all her clothes and giving up sex entirely because it's too naughty. One of his spoiled daughters is about to get married, and about to become a famous cheerleader, the other spoiled daughter works at the Dallas Conspiracy Museum fretting about mom, her sister and just about everything. There's a spoiled sister-in-law who's separated, drinks too much and has moved into his house with her three kids. And there's also dozens of rich, pampered Dallas society women he treats. You see, Dr. T is a gynecologist.

Dr. T. eventually explains that to him women are saints. When they go wrong or go bad it's a man's fault. He's about to learn a hard lesson, that his belief is a little bit lopsided, a little bit too much of a good thing. Nobody is perfect, not even women. And Men ... not even him, should ever be so presumptuous to believe they have the ultimate control.

Now there's some critics and writers who have apparently already decided the film is more than a little misogynistic. They need to watch the film a few more times. There are others that have decided the film is a lighter than latte foam. They also need to watch the film a few more times.

It's far from a perfect film, and it isn't an important film with a message or one that ends with a powerful emotional wallop that sucker punches you at it's conclusion.

No, this is a wonderfully written, masterfully directed, perfectly cast, brilliantly acted gem of a film. It's almost a modern screwball comedy, the way a Sturges may have delivered one, if he had been Altman.

I suspect there are several scenes the film critics are identifying or complaining about as being slightly off mark. For me there were two. And they were minor. One involves a scene in which a women patient is allowed to smoke. The smoking is over-exaggerated... like the women is actually an actresses pretending to smoke.. too quickly, too desperately. It's one of the few phony, overly deliberate scenes in the film. The other is when Dr. T is told a secret about his about to wed daughter Dee Dee, by his other daughter. It plays false, because the revelation should not throw his character for quite the loop it does, in quite the way it does.

The film quickly recovers from both of these brief stumbles however.

A casual film-goer might take a lot of what Altman does for granted. So permit me this obvious to many, explanation.

In real life, when we are in a crowded room we can hear several conversations at once, and tune in and out of the ones we want to over-hear. However, to duplicate this on film is quite a difficult technical feat. To wire the room properly for sound, to get everyone talking at the right volume, to get the mixing of volumes in post production and make sure all of the conversations can be heard, to decide how they are blended in and around one another, to create believable movement... well it's a remarkable achievement. Altman perfected this technique, and few do it as well or as successfully. Few create entire scenes that drip with layers of texture and detail like an Altman scene often can. Few give a feeling of depth to both foreground and background characters within the same scene. Few give so many actors a moment here and a moment there to react or do just the right thing. Few let us glimpse at both sides of a situation the way Altman lets us. It can be confusing, and it isn't necessary to the plot of the film. It just adds a layer of authenticity to every shot. Minor characters and extras may have a bit of business which is so perfectly done, such a rightly captured human moment it makes us smile with its truth.

The danger of course is by making sure to get so many details right, it forces us to closely inspect every other detail of the film. Sometimes some details aren't right. Sometimes some details ring false, or are missed or passed over.

We forgive Altman for these things in many of his films, because the stumbles are going to happen when you push so hard, to be so precise, yet remain loose enough to give your actors the room they need to act, to improvise, to find their moments. When you trust people, be they art directors or actors, not all their decisions are going to be good ones. But you let them make their mistakes. You let them have their moments, good, and not so good. You hope the not so good moments give the film a shaggy dog feel. It's imperfections transform into making the film oh so much more precious and endearing because it isn't perfect.

Altman paints as he goes. It's a technique that is like a high wire artist in a circus working without a net. Altman has fallen many times in the past. But he's lived through his falls.

And now with Dr T and the Women he dazzles us with a lifetime of his experience behind the camera, constructing scenes, working with actors, and proves himself a master. He's taken for granted these days and when his films are less than they should be, critics will take to calling him a traffic manager, yet when it does work the way it's supposed to-- few call him a genius.

He's not really a genius.... He's Altman. He's been doing things the way he pleases for nearly 40 years now. Ever since he refused to direct his third Alfred Hitchcock Presents episode in the 60's and got himself fired. Ever since he followed his smash hit Mash, with the quirky and bizarre Brewster McCloud. Ever since he directed such brilliant films as McCabe and Mrs. Miller, The Long Goodbye, Thieves Like Us, and of course Nashville. He falls right on his face with things like Quintet and Beyond Therapy. He can direct a disappointment like Popeye and then turn his back completely on Hollywood and the studios for nearly ten years to concentrate on directing little known and quirky plays like Come Back to the Five and Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean, Streamers, and Secret Honor.

This is the guy capable of directing one of the greatest political satires ever made -- Tanner ‘88 (For HBO) and then make a triumphant critical return to Hollywood with The Player, follow that up with the masterpiece Short Cuts only to let nearly everyone down with Ready to Wear and Kansas City. He then got another studio system project to direct and fought with studio executives over his final cut of The Gingerbread Man. The film was not thought of as a success.

Then there was Cookie's Fortune, a fine quirky little ensemble piece and now a bigger quirker ensemble piece; Dr T and the Women.

Altman is a film-maker who continues to do things exactly as he pleases. Even at 75, he's making controversial films which will inspire film-makers to reach beyond formulas and focus groups and create something which defies labels and perhaps even genres. They are also tough films to market to an audience.

Just look at what he does at the end of Dr. T and the Women. He could have chosen to let the film wind down, but instead he takes a giant leap and I believe scores a huge victory for doing so.

Altman is the undisputed master of creating moments that will frustrate some, exhilarate others but ultimately be precisely the type of ending the material demanded all along.

The last line of the film ties into the film in a surprising, spiritual manner that couldn't be more perfect, couldn't be more simple and yet is an extreme risk which I suspect many critics will consider it a flaw. Some may even read it incorrectly.

Not everyone is going to like or even accept what Altman does. But if you have been paying attention to the film, I trust you will respect what he does.

Altman has not stunt casted, or forced any of his actors to stretch beyond what they are capable of. Even Helen Hunt who I find to be an appealing but extremely limited actress , turns in a performance that uses her few strengths so well, you don't notice her weaknesses.

Richard Gere has never been better, and probably never will be this good again.

Dr. T & The Women is a quirky character study of a man who believes he understands women better than he understands himself. He discovers he doesn't understand himself very well at all and consequently doesn't know women all that well either.

There are several witty, satirical, clever and funny observations being made about a great many things in the film, but there are also some keenly made ones that speak directly to the heart and soul of the human psyche. It's here the film becomes much more than the humorous exercise it's pretending to be most of the time. It is here that subsequent viewings will reveal there is a lot more going on in the film than you might have originally believed.

Altman has delivered not a little truffle of a film here, but a richly, layered masterpiece to be savored and enjoyed over and over again.

Don't miss it.