Breast Men

This is a fairly good movie (especially for a TV film). Ok it was dramatized a lot and you noticed it, but it was pretty enjoyable (better than Hollywood crap like The Avengers or Godzilla).

7 out of 10.

This is a truly odd film, with a style and tone quite unlike any other I've seen; while the first two thirds is darkly comic in a quite gentle, embarrassment-not-pain kind of way, the end descends into a very sombre, serious half hour before the final shocking moment. Presented as a life-story of some (presumably at least semi-fictitious) pioneers of silicon breast enlargement, along with snippets from some "documentary" (real or otherwise, it's not clear) featuring women discussing (and exposing) their breasts, it spans over several decades in a typical up-down-up trajectory. David Schwimmer, looking youthful and a little goofy, plays the lead, a young, ambitious, slightly breast-fixated (here's most of the comedy bits) doctor who comes up with an idea for a new form of breast enhancement. The idea is followed through initial scorn, industrial manipulation, to success and popularity before the hideous problems associated with inserting silicon into the body become clear. Many of the issues involved in the topic are addressed in some form or other, from those who need such surgery due to genuine breast problems down to the question of how far such enhancement can be justified ethically, balancing the desire of women to be perceived as "normal" and attractive against the creation of circus freaks with unnaturally large bosoms. The film does give a good, balanced insight into the subject matter, but the presentation is odd, the mood of the film strangely skewed; neither Schwimmer's lead nor his mentor present particularly likeable characters, the change of tone near the end leaves the viewer with the feeling of having watched a gritty drama rather than the comedy advertised, and the portrayal of women in the piece is far from empowering; those in the film itself are rarely more than caricatures, pairs of breasts to be reconstructed, while the "talking heads" featured in the documentary snippets are more "talking breasts", the lack of faces somehow dehumanising the interviewees and turning them into the freakshow some of them so want to escape (though some are clearly quite happy that their breasts are their defining characteristic). The filmmakers have made a lot of effort here, and it is perhaps a little unfortunate that the balance between humour and serious issue-probing is not well worked. A patchy, interesting but very strange movie which could have been a lot better, it is still worth a watch, but perhaps more as education than entertainment.

"Breast is better", nursing mothers were told, but to a lot of American men, "bigger is better." I suppose the only way for a man to know how a woman feels about this is to imagine a society in which, first, penises were displayed in public (as in some traditional societies in Melanesia), and second, where women preferred bigger ones (not terribly likely, though it does appear Gay men do).

This little rather over-dramatised documentary made for TV traces the story of two male doctors from Texas who developed the silicone breast implant, fell out, made fortunes from thousands of insecure women and then hit the liability wall. One of them, played by David Schwimmer, then had the entrepreneurial imagination, not to say hide, to make another fortune removing unwanted and defective implants. It's a wonderful trip down the Primrose Path to Perdition powered by affluence and primal urges. There are more bunnies than Playboy and more breasts than a chicken shop but it's not particularly sexploitational in tone. In fact it's a moral tale. Mobile phones combined with primal urges and motoring can be fatal. Seriously, this movie is a great deal better than it might have been.

An okay treatise on an interesting subject (wink, nod). The Seventies milieu was well-presented, as were the scenes shot in Houston. David Schwimmer, however, just can't pull off his role as a surgeon. He doesn't seem to be a bad actor, but is just not believable in this part.

David Schwimmer puts aside his likability for this movie about breast implant pioneers. He does a great job as a money-hungry, publicity seeking plastic surgeon with no ethics, no morals, and ultimately, no soul. Chris Cooper, as the member of the partnership team with some little conscience, is equally despicable and equally funny. The 70s references are painfully accurate and anyone who lived then will wince in recognition. A good, if not great, dark comedy, worth seeing just to see David Schwimmer playing a self-centered jerk. By the time his final scene rolls around, you'll cheer for his exit. Overall, not bad ; some sharp commentary, and funny more often than not.