Cady's Take:

Enter Slater (Denis Leary) an angered patient – David botched his filling – but soon he’s sitting in the passenger seat of David’s SUV, worming ideas into his head. Slater, the jazz musician with a failed marriage, becomes David’s acerbic alter ego. He keeps prodding David - in the bedroom, at the dining table, in the car - to confront his wife. We don't even know for sure if she's actually having an affair (we only assume she is).

In one outstanding scene, David has agreed to take the family to their country house for the weekend. Waiting for his wife to arrive, he sulks outside the house, hiding out of sight and watching the front door. When Dana actually appears, she doesn't know she's being watched; she stops at the door and takes a moment to compose herself before entering. Why must she gather herself before going in? What has she been doing? He is too afraid to ask.

As the story unfolds we are kept wondering if Dave is nuts, Dana is cheating, or both. When the flu rips through the family and makes the madhouse of rampaging kids even crazier, the marriage crisis becomes a delirious fever dream.

In the end reality finally does take hold, but audiences will be in suspense right up to the last second.

Let me tell you all something – the secret lives of dentists are almost as boring as a visit to their office. This movie is sterile, tense, and at times, painful. I know what the movie was supposed to be saying, but to me it said, “Take a nap, Kyle.”

Campbell Scott plays David Hurst, a dentist who shares a practice with his wife Dana, played by Hope Davis. Although I enjoy both actors tremendously, and they made the material work as well as it could, the movie itself did not interest me enough to recommend it. David and Dana have been married for ten years, and one night David sees another man with Dana, and Dana’s face light up as she looks at him. David becomes consumed with the gulf that is growing in his marriage, and obsesses about his wife’s affair, but refuses to confront her, fearing that if he does, the problem will become real, and his marriage will be over. It is quite clear how much he loves Dana, and it is never clear whether she loves David. The relationship created by Scott and Davis is authentic, and their family world is real and almost palpable as they barb one another, take care of their children, and work side-by-side, however the movie moves slowly and reveals little.

The highlight of the movie was Denis Leary, who plays a disgruntled patient of David’s and then shows up as his subconscious throughout the rest of the movie. His character, Slater, rants and raves against David’s inclinations to avoid the affair, and the problems roiling beneath the surface of his marriage. He was literally the only breath of fresh air throughout the entire movie. “The Secret Lives of Dentists” should remain just that – a secret.