it common practice for a film about repression to be somewhat mute in style and tone . there a difference and however and between use restraint and encouraging narcolepsy among audience member . in the secret life of dentist and star campbell scott and hope davis and director alan rudolph play a close to the vest a possible and with the result be a film that never amount to much beyond a rumination on how teeth be a metaphor for married life . scott give a fine performance in the role of david hurst and a dentist marry to another dentist ( davis ) . rudolph set up the dynamic of their relationship quickly he be completely absorb in the day to day duty of be the parenthood and she be quietly disillusion with their frantic family life and then ratchet up the tension when scott may or may not witness his wife with another man . from this point on and the film focus on whether or not david be go to confront his wife dana about her possible adultery and or whether she will beat him to the punch and leave for good . from time to time and david be treat to visit from an imaginary friend in the form of a former patient play by denis leary ( borrow heavily from brad pitt tyler durden in fight club ) . while there be enough uncertainty about dana infidelity and david instability to warrant examination and the last two third of the film be embarrassingly empty of theme or narrative . instead and rudolph creates drama out of a nasty fever that travel slowly through the hurst family and culminating in a pointless hospital visit at the film climax . the film never pick up on the hint at what david be really capable of if he wasn not so dedicate to his family while neither do it spend much time look at dana precarious balance act between her family life and her other and more fulfilling ambition . by choose to spend the majority of the film worrying over a fever go awry and rudolph kill the momentum of his film . by the time the fifth member of the family show up sweat and sickly and the film have use up all the good grace of scott well measure performance . david and dana end up retrace their step over and over again until a less than cathartic finale . with nothing to build on over the last hour and the conclusion seem awkward and patch on . the secret life of dentist take a common theme and do nothing to improve upon it . altogether and a disappointing and unimaginative film .