Stars: Helen Hunt, Richard Gere, Shelley Long, Laura Dern, Farrah Fawcett, Liv Tyler, Tara Reid, Kate Hudson, Robert Hays, Matt Malloy, Lee Grant, Janine Turner, Andy Richter

Director: Robert Altman

Summary: Dallas gynaecologist, Doctor Sullivan Travis, finds his life slowly falling apart when the many women in his life start to drive him crazy...

Robert Altman follows up the good-natured COOKIE'S FORTUNE with this biting satire of an upper-class elitist Dallas community. Richard Gere plays Sullivan 'Sully' Travis (better known as Dr. T), a man whose good looks and overflowing charm have made him the most popular gynecologist in all of Texas. Things begin to go wrong for Dr. T when his beautiful wife, Kate (Farrah Fawcett), begins to lose her sanity. He sends her to a mental hospital with the hopes of a full recovery, but her regression into childhood seems to be permanent. Adding to the mass confusion is an unexpected visit from his alcoholic sister-in-law, Peggy (Laura Dern), who brings along her three children, as well as the constant battles between Dr. T's two daughters: the soon-to-be-married Dee Dee (Kate Hudson) and the jealous Connie (Tara Reid). Upon meeting his country club's new assistant golf pro, Bree (Helen Hunt), Dr. T finally feels like he's met his match--a beautiful, independent woman who has no desire to be swept off her feet. Trying to juggle the pressures of his personal and professional life, Dr. T's recent problems culminate on Dee Dee's rain-soaked wedding day. Working again with screenwriter Anne Rapp, Altman closes his sprawling comedy with an utterly outrageous yet genuinely optimistic finale.

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The contrary streak in Robert Altman's work is particularly evident in Dr T &the Women, which casts Richard Gere as a smooth, upper-crust Dallas gynaecologist surrounded by dotty women. Surprisingly Gere does not play the sensitive seducer but a genuine admirer of women who is nevertheless progressively bewildered by the sheer number of neurotic females within his life. Dr Sullivan Travis (Gere) tries to cope with a wife (Farrah Fawcett) who reverts to childhood thanks to a rare psychological syndrome brought on by being loved and cared for too much, a sister-in-law (Laura Dern) who tipples and talks constantly as she tries to run the household, one daughter (Kate Hudson) who is about to have an elaborate wedding even though she is actually in love with a college friend (Liv Tyler) and another daughter (Tara Reid) who works in the local assassination conspiracy tourist industry, not to mention a nurse (Shelley Long) who is blindly in love with him and a deceptively sensible golf pro (Helen Hunt) who isn't. Unlike Gosford Park, this isn't major Altman--it draws a little too much on some of his earlier hits and sometimes twitters too close to low comedy--but it has many of his unique virtues: a sort of cynical warmth in entering an enclosed, oddball world (here, a side of Texas rarely seen on screen) and an uncanny ability to draw the best out of an apparently randomly assembled ensemble cast.

On the DVD:A flawless 1:2.35 letterboxed print, enhanced for 16x9. Otherwise, it's a very nice package. A commentary track assembles thoughts from Altman, screenwriter Anne Rapp and a large amount of the cast, all offering insight into the unusual way that Altman puts a film together and often throwing in surprising bits of information (that Farrah Fawcett was offered Basic Instinctbut turned it down because of the nudity, though she has a tasteful clothes-off scene here). Also, a standard making-of short with more soundbites, the theatrical trailer, a few filmographies and a 15-minute to-camera interview with Altman. --Kim Newman

Aspect Ratio:	2.35 Wide Screen
Main Language:	English
Region:	Region 2
Special Features:	Audio Commentary - 1. Cast & Crew, Production Interview - 1. Robert Altman - Director, Featurette - 1. THE MAKING OF DR. T AND THE WOMEN, Trailer - 1. Original Theatrical, Filmographies
Year:	2000
Release Date:	January 7, 2002
Runtime:	116 minutes
Certification:
Catalogue Number:	C D R 31456
Keywords:	Women, Comedy, General, Doctor, Wide, Screen, T
Genre:	Comedy