Dr T And The Women

Richard Gere has been running on empty too long. Primal Fear was ages ago and, anyway, he was acted off the screen in that by newcomer Edward Norton. Ever since, he's been doing his bit for the Dalai Lama and men with grey hair.

Dr T is his kind of guy, handsome, charming, successful, popular, with a loving family and a healthy waiting list of rich hypochondriacs. All he has to do is smile in that way he does and ladies melt. One takes her knickers off.

As the most fashionable gynaecologist in Dallas, his surgery is heaving with spoilt millionairesses. Despite what you might think, Dr T doesn't play around. He prefers dressing up in camouflage army gear and shooting wild duck in a swamp. These boys' days out are so dull, you wonder what goes on inside that head of his. The answer is very little, judging by the level of conversation.

Other than exposing the Texan upper classes as vapid, alcoholic, snobbish and bitchy, the film has a message for those who think they have it all. Things can go wrong.

After recovering from the shock of this revelation, let's examine the evidence. Or lack of it.

Dr T's wife (Farrar Fawcett) loses her marbles. One of his daughters (Kate Hudson) has a crush on a tall girl from Houston (Liv Tyler), which puts her marriage to a lanky drip in jeopardy. The doc's catch phrase, "Never take a good woman for granted", is put to the test when he has a fling with the assistant golf pro (Helen Hunt) and his PA at the surgery (Shelly Long) makes a pass at him and he wrecks his car.

Director Robert Altman and writer Anne Rapp made the delightful Cookie's Fortune three years ago. How they could collaborate again on something so lightweight comes as a shock. The same technique of multi-character ensemble inclusivity is employed, the difference being that Dr T's script is posh trash, while Cookie's was beautifully constructed.

Fawcett still has the hair and plays crazy like a kid in a school play. Hudson has the same Goldie smile as the groupie-with-a-heart-of-gold in Almost Famous, except she doesn't have Cameron Crowe's lines. For the first time ever, Hunt is unconvincing. Her golf swing is even worse than Matt Damon's in The Legend Of Bagger Vance and sexual chemistry fizzles on impact with the man in the white coat.