Dana, an amateur soprano, pours her heart into a once in a lifetime opportunity to perform Verdi with a professional Opera company. Following the performance, she tells her husband through tears, she wishes she could sing the music forever. Dave suspects she is crying for a different reason. Unknown to her, Dave believes he has recently witnessed his wife in an intimate exchange with another man at the opera house.
Emotionally repressed by nature, Daves jealousy causes him to fantasize conversations with his most difficult patient Slater (Denis Leary), allowing him to avoid confronting his wife. Slater, a hard living musician with a toothache, having recently been ejected by his own wife, adds a running commentary on Daves personal conversations, churning up the dentists deepest insecurities and pushing Dave to the more primal side of his nature.
During an untimely family dilemma, when the entire household succumbs to a raging flu, Dave runs himself ragged, until fevers die down and he relaxes, believing that family equilibrium has been restored. That night, Dana does not come home. Slater goads the quiet dentist toward the brink of revenge.
The Secret Lives of Dentists prods at the complexities, paradoxes, and tender beauties of marriage. Illuminated by the performances of the films stars Campbell Scott (Roger Dodger), Hope Davis (About Schmidt), The Secret Lives of Dentists is an insightful and complete human portrait of a couple caught in the mistakes two people can make. Denis Leary (JesusSon, The Thomas Crown Affair) and Robin Tunney (The Wedding Party, Vertical Limit) round out the cast of this universal tale of a perfect couple at a crossroads in their relationship. The screenplay is based on The Age of Grief, the best selling novella by Pulitzer Prize winner Jane Smiley, adapted for screen by celebrated playwright and screenwriter, Craig Lucas (Longtime Companion, Prelude to a Kiss).
Special Features:
- Theatrical Trailer(s)
- Commentary By Director Alan Rudolph And Campbell Scott
- Featurette: "sundance Channel Anatomy Of A Scene"
- Deleted Scenes
- Gag Reel