The Secret Lives of Dentists

Tooth doctor David Hurst (dependable indie veteran Campbell Scott) shares an office with his wife, Dana (Hope Davis), a fellow dentist. She also sings in a local opera. One evening, he drops by her dressing room and sees her being kissed by another man. David internalizes the incident instead of demanding an explanation that may upset the status quo of his comfortable professional and family life. He then begins fantasizing conversations with a difficult patient (an effectively grating Denis Leary) who has just been dumped by his own wife. This intriguing if only mildly revelatory approach to a tall adult tale about insecurity, jealousy, lust and the complexities of marriage is adapted from Jane Smiley’s novella The Age of Grief by Craig Lucas (Prelude to a Kiss) and directed by Robert Altman protégé Alan Rudolph (Choose Me and The Moderns).