The Love Doctor Is In

Dr. T and the Women Dir: Robert Altman Starring Richard Gere Farrah Fawcet Shelley Long Helent Hunt 2000 R, 121 m RATING: 7 out of 10

Richard Gere stars as a man who can't seem to stop over- accomadating the women in his life in Altman's picaresque tale.

Women are constantly portrayed in films as being abused and unloved by the men in their lives.  Robert Altman's answer to this is Dr. T and the Women, a smart romantic comedy that takes a 180 degree turn on that familiar theme and instead gives us Richard Gere as an OB/GYN who's surrounded by women and plagued by one problem: he loves them all too much. Gere stars in the titular role, and the women are played by both veteran and newcomer actresses alike, all wealthy Dallas socialites, some of whom are his patients and other his family members.  His office is constantly filled with haranguing, whining women who seem totally dependent on Dr.T's medical diagnosis as an approval of their lives.  Things take a turn for the even more chaotic when his wife (the fabulously (the ditzy Farrah Fawcett) is diagnosed with a complex that quite literally translates to "loving her too much." Richard Gere gives such a disarming, winning, and quietly graceful performance as Dr. T that it's perfectly juxtaposed with the overwhelming and frantic women.  The women characters, though not particularly deep or  pensive, serve only as foils to Helen Hunt's independent, thoughtful, and meaningful character, for whom Dr. T. unavoidably falls for.   Screenwriter Anne Rappe pays careful attention to detail, in both oberservations on women and the wealthy, and though there are sometimes one too many plot lines flowing at once, most of them are concluded nicely and with out trite neatness in the end. Handled with an easygoing charm, Altman delivers another satisfying, thoroughly entertaining, and not quite as complex film.  Richard Gere's turn as the overbearring Dr. T is his most likeable performance yet, and he serves well as the balancing point of the hectic, erratic women who fill his life with turmoil, but ultimately happiness.

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