(Rated R, 122 mins.)
Richard Gere heads up this Robert Altman ensemble cast including Academy Award winner Helen Hunt, Oscar nominee Laura Dern, Farrah Fawcett, Kate Hudson, Liv Tyler, Shelley Long, Janine Turner, Andy Richter, Lee Grant, and Robert Hays in this romantic comedy. The film finds the mavericks director revisiting a favorite topic: relations between men and women. Dallas gynecologist Dr. Sullivan Travis (Gerg) is a man juggling many, many women both professionally and personally. His wife may be Fawcett, but he has regressed into a childlike state (a la “American Beauty’s” Kevin Spacey) for the upcoming wedding of cheerleader daughter Dee Dee (Hudson). When sister in law (Dern) moves in with her three little girls, Kennedy-conspiracy-buff daughter Connie (Tara Reid) is sounding the alarm about Dee Dee’s chosen maid of honor, the mysterious Marilyn (Tyler). Overwhelmed, Dr. T begins spending more time as his country club’s golf course, adding a new woman to his life – easygoing new golf pro, Bree (Hunt). Gere plays his straightest-laced character to date, and the whole pun on being a gynecologist (the job every man thinks is perfect) works in showing, it isn’t. The Gere chemistry with Hunt is a far cry from “Pretty Woman” but nothing could ever top that anyway.