Dr T and the Women (2000)

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General		Extras
Category	Comedy	Theatrical Trailer
Rating
Year Of Production	2000
Running Time	116:54
RSDL / Flipper	RSDL (61:36)	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	4	Directed By	Robert Altman
Studio Distributor	Sony Pictures Home Entertain	Starring	Richard Gere Helen Hunt Farrah Fawcett Laura Dern Shelley Long Tara Reid Kate Hudson Liv Tyler
Case	Soft Brackley-Transp
RPI	$36.95	Music	Lyle Lovett

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	Auto Pan & Scan Encoded	English Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	2.35:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	2.35:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	English Hindi Portuguese	Smoking	Yes
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

    What, not another film in which Richard Gere plays a womanising, fifty-something playboy who can't commit, get married, or find the right woman? No, not quite. This time around, Gere plays Dr Sullivan Travis, a highly successful gynaecologist that every woman in Dallas seems to love because he understands women. Not quite What Women Want, but he's getting there. The problem is that while he understands women and can solve all their problems, he is having problems with the women in his own life (and there is a lot of them). His wife (Farrah Fawcett), is suffering from a mental disorder that sees her sent to an institution, his daughter Dee Dee (sigh - a lovely Kate Hudson) is having doubts over her sexuality (now that's not funny), and his other daughter (Tara Reid) is a bit obsessed with a certain Dallas event in 1963 and conducts tours of the JFK assassination museum. With all the trouble at home he finds solace in the arms of his golf pro Bree (yes another woman) - played by Helen Hunt. By the way, if Helen Hunt's character is supposedly a golf pro with ten years tour experience and has never dropped out of the top 20 world rankings, then I'm Tiger Woods!. With a swing as bad as hers I reckon I could at least win the US Masters once or twice. The rest of the cast is made of a some very high profile ladies, including Shelley Long, Liv Tyler, and Laura Dern and they all put in solid performances.

    I wasn't too sure what I was thinking when I volunteered to review this title. After struggling to get through Richard Gere and his womanising ways in Autumn In New York, I didn't have high expectations for this movie. I'm still not too sure what it was all about. If it was intended as a comedy, then I don't think it really worked and the ending left me scratching my head.In the past, I have found Robert Altman films to be like this - perhaps a bit too smart for me.

Video

    A very nice transfer has been afforded this film, as would be expected given its youth.

    The transfer is presented in the original theatrical aspect ratio of 2.35:1. It is thankfully 16x9 enhanced. There is also automatic Pan & Scan encoding present, so make sure you have your DVD player set to display in 4:3 letterbox or 16:9 Enhanced if you wish to view the film in its original aspect ratio.

    The transfer is sharp and free of all but the most minor edge enhancement. Excessive grain does not raise its ugly head. Shadow detail is impeccable with deep blacks and no loss of detail and there is no low level noise present.

    Colours are well rendered and show a wide palette. There are numerous examples of nice, rich, vibrant shades and this transfer displays them to full effect. I thought some oversaturation was evident a couple of times (on the hunting jackets around 8:20-9:00) but that is being really picky.

    I noticed no MPEG artefacts and only the usual minor film-to-video problems such as minor Venetian blind shimmering. Film artefacts, while not numerous, were present. A particularly large blotch on the extreme edge of the left side of the screen at 8:27 was most notable.

    Three subtitle streams are present, these being English, Hindi, and Portuguese. I sampled the English flavour extensively and noticed no serious errors or omissions.

    Contrary to the packaging which states that this is a single sided/single layer disc, this is a dual layered RSDL formatted disc, with the layer change occurring on a scene change at 61:36. It is perfectly placed. I had to check for it three times, and very nearly missed it altogether.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    There is only one audio track available on this disc, and this is a Dolby Digital 5.1 effort. Unless I wanted to listen in total silence I had no choice but to pick this one.

    Dialogue is mostly clear and concise with a nice emphasis in the overall soundtrack. At times, there are scenes with overlapping dialogue (apparently an Altman trademark) that become just a little too much to handle. These scenes become quite busy and although that is what the director was intending they do become tiresome after a while (this isn't helped because they also feature my least favourite female actor of all time - Shelley Long). There are no audio sync problems.

    The musical score and songs used throughout are composed and performed by Lyle Lovett, whose music I am not too familiar with, but I thought it had some distinct country influences and sound. It was certainly unique, but did become a little grating after a while.

    Being a dialogue-based comedy, there was little chance for surround use. The multiple rain scenes throughout were notable exceptions.

    The subwoofer received only minor use for much of the film, but did wake from its slumber during the wedding thunderstorm from 97:30 to 101:10 where its response was nice and deep.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

    Only a trailer to entertain us.

Theatrical Trailer

    The trailer is presented in an aspect of 1.78:1 and is 16x9 enhanced. It has a Dolby Digital 2.0 soundtrack and runs for 2:10 minutes. The usual stuff.

    The Region 4 disc misses out on;

• Audio Commentary featuring almost the full cast and crew
• Making-Of Featurette
• Robert Altman Interview
• Production Notes
• Biographies
• TV Spots

    The Region 1 disc misses out on

• Nothing

    I'd have to tip the scale in favour of the R1 in this case. There are significantly more extras available that add real value to the product.

    I've never been a big fan of Robert Altman movies. He always seems to make his films smarter than they need to be. The closing scenes especially left everyone in my house who watched it scratching their heads wondering what it was all about. If anyone can work it out and offer a reasonable layman's explanation, I'd love to hear from you.

    The video transfer is of a very high standard, although I think we have reached the stage where this should be the bare minimum requirement. The audio is also decent without stretching the limits.

    There are no extras to get excited over.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall