![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Yar. Toby's acting up. The battery won't recharge and the mouse is going every which way. I'll have to call and get it fixed at some point. Hopefully they won't tell me to send in my computer, because that would be a disaster, seeing as I'm leaving in 25 days.
So, about The Secret Lives of Dentists. I really liked the first 45 minutes or so, because they basically consisted of Campbell Scott (who did have a mustache, unfortunately, but it wasn't as ugly as I thought it'd be) acting his ass off. He played this dentist (surprise) named David who basically ran his entire family. He had three girls (Portrayed very realistically, I might add. They reminded me of my sisters.) and they were always moaning and getting sick and hitting things. He was the model father throughout the first half. Very stoic, as the Trib said. Although I'm not sure there are degrees of stoicism.
About 5 minutes into the movie, I realized that Campbell Scott and Matthew MacFadyen (Tom of MI-5) look really really similar. Matthew just looks more British. That's about the only difference. Both can really act using their eyes. Since Campbell's character didn't say much, he had to convey most of what he was feeling with his eyes. Until he started talking to Dennis Leary, his imaginary friend. I'm not kidding. That basically ruined the movie. The first 45 minutes were more realistic than formalistic (fancy film talk here), but Dennis Leary pulling a Tyler Durden (and he was dressed exactly like Tyler) just made the whole thing stupid and sapped any credibility the movie might have had. But anyway. Campbell did a fantastic job. He really held the whole film together, and it was nice to see him and Leary onscreen together, because Leary is a pretty good actor and they played off one another well.
Character-wise, David and Roger couldn't be more different. Or more similar. Allow me to explain. David does anything anyone wants him to do without complaining. He takes hit after hit and says nothing, remains stoic. Roger, on the other hand, doesn't take anything lying down. He's always first on the offense, ready with his wit and his words. But ultimately they're both trying to save themselves from knowing the truth...about...themselves, I guess. David doesn't confront his wife about her alleged affair because if he did, he would have to do something. Asking would be acknowledging that there's a problem. In the same vein, Roger never lets a woman reject them. He pisses off any prospective woman so much that they never get a chance. He does the rejection for them, in a way, so he can rationalize it to himself. What really intrigued me was this short scene between David and Leary, where David chronicled all the crap he went through, dentist school and high school and putting up with his father, to have the life he has. Reminded me of Roger, for some reason. He's undoubtedly gone through a lot of shit in order to become the man he is, to slip through people's lives without forming any attachments (supposedly). But...I like to think Roger's not happy with who he is. I think the scene in the whorehouse shows that. That's one of my favorites of the movie. Anyway, the movie made me want to write Roger Dodger fanfic. Actually, more fanfic, because I wrote a fic awhile ago. I don't know what it is about Roger. OK, I'm done.
On a more amusing note, the whole movie could've been summarized using the sentence "You're in love with Dana...BLEEEEEEH." (You know? X-Files? His wife was named Dana, by the way.) This amused me and Sammi heartily. At one point in the movie, people were puking left and right and stepping in the puke and puking out of car windows and on one another's shirts. It got to be pretty funny.
So, about The Secret Lives of Dentists. I really liked the first 45 minutes or so, because they basically consisted of Campbell Scott (who did have a mustache, unfortunately, but it wasn't as ugly as I thought it'd be) acting his ass off. He played this dentist (surprise) named David who basically ran his entire family. He had three girls (Portrayed very realistically, I might add. They reminded me of my sisters.) and they were always moaning and getting sick and hitting things. He was the model father throughout the first half. Very stoic, as the Trib said. Although I'm not sure there are degrees of stoicism.
About 5 minutes into the movie, I realized that Campbell Scott and Matthew MacFadyen (Tom of MI-5) look really really similar. Matthew just looks more British. That's about the only difference. Both can really act using their eyes. Since Campbell's character didn't say much, he had to convey most of what he was feeling with his eyes. Until he started talking to Dennis Leary, his imaginary friend. I'm not kidding. That basically ruined the movie. The first 45 minutes were more realistic than formalistic (fancy film talk here), but Dennis Leary pulling a Tyler Durden (and he was dressed exactly like Tyler) just made the whole thing stupid and sapped any credibility the movie might have had. But anyway. Campbell did a fantastic job. He really held the whole film together, and it was nice to see him and Leary onscreen together, because Leary is a pretty good actor and they played off one another well.
Character-wise, David and Roger couldn't be more different. Or more similar. Allow me to explain. David does anything anyone wants him to do without complaining. He takes hit after hit and says nothing, remains stoic. Roger, on the other hand, doesn't take anything lying down. He's always first on the offense, ready with his wit and his words. But ultimately they're both trying to save themselves from knowing the truth...about...themselves, I guess. David doesn't confront his wife about her alleged affair because if he did, he would have to do something. Asking would be acknowledging that there's a problem. In the same vein, Roger never lets a woman reject them. He pisses off any prospective woman so much that they never get a chance. He does the rejection for them, in a way, so he can rationalize it to himself. What really intrigued me was this short scene between David and Leary, where David chronicled all the crap he went through, dentist school and high school and putting up with his father, to have the life he has. Reminded me of Roger, for some reason. He's undoubtedly gone through a lot of shit in order to become the man he is, to slip through people's lives without forming any attachments (supposedly). But...I like to think Roger's not happy with who he is. I think the scene in the whorehouse shows that. That's one of my favorites of the movie. Anyway, the movie made me want to write Roger Dodger fanfic. Actually, more fanfic, because I wrote a fic awhile ago. I don't know what it is about Roger. OK, I'm done.
On a more amusing note, the whole movie could've been summarized using the sentence "You're in love with Dana...BLEEEEEEH." (You know? X-Files? His wife was named Dana, by the way.) This amused me and Sammi heartily. At one point in the movie, people were puking left and right and stepping in the puke and puking out of car windows and on one another's shirts. It got to be pretty funny.
