Traveling dentist O'Connell traverses South America on his motorcycle for the 'Eversmile' foundation of New Jersey, in a fight not only against cavities, but also against fear, ignorance, indifference - and established antediluvian dentists. During a stop at a lonesome garage he meets Estella, who is supposed to marry a few days later. However she'd rather come with him - to meet a former boyfriend in another town, she says. Expecting problems, he refuses to take her, but she tricks him into it and then tries hard to convince him of her qualities and let her stay with him.
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I don't know if this qualifies as *spoiler*, but ...Am I the only one who saw these two leading characters as Jesus Christ and Mary Magdelene? In that context, the whole movie starts to make sense, in a metaphorical way, that is.Just get out your New Testament and start tracking the scenes in this movie. This is the last years of the life of Christ. And the final scene is clearly the resurrection, isn't it? I didn't recognize it until about halfway through the first time it aired on HBO (or Showtime, or TMC, etc.) when it suddenly hit me. Temptation, the merchants at the Temple, and so on.
I rented this because of Daniel-Day Lewis, who stars as a traveling dentist. All I can say is that it is so bizarre you should not watch it alone. You might find yourself going insane. It's not that the movie has any strange or bizarre effects, it's completely straightforward. To find out what I'm talking about you'll have to see for yourself. I'll also add the Day-Lewis was incredible, and he is the best actor I have ever seen.
I am in a very peculiar mood right now having just seen this movie. It is, to me at least, so bizarre my head is spinning. Not bizarre in an obvious, flashy way, but because the film takes itself so seriously in creating a protagonist the viewer relates to and empathize with, yet the character is utterly ridiculous. It leaves one to think, perhaps he's not ridiculous at all, but maybe this is what we are all like. As I have just minutes ago seen the film it's probable my opinion will change, but at this moment, what I got from this film was a very subtle but nonetheless effective message that life, films, people, teeth, war, and whatever else are completely meaningless. In one scene the dentist is explaining how silly the fighting in Northern Ireland is, if they could only realize their teeth are decaying. This film to me says, 'meaningless', and I appreciated it. I would be very curious to learn about the development of this film and what everyone involved was thinking. All in all, a film certainly worth seeing, and I must add that Daniel Day-Lewis was the reason I rented the film and I wasn't disappointed. The best actor of our generation. Unbelievable. Can't wait for Gangs of New York.
I'm not sure how many other mobile-dentist-in-Argentina movies have been made, but this must be the best of the bunch. Daniel Day-Lewis is absolutely possessed, as a man determined to rid rural South America of tooth decay. Maltin's low rating is unjustified (1 1/2*), this fits rather in the hidden treasure category. Mirjana Jokovic, a girl Daniel meets along the way, gives a haunting innocent-but-sexy performance.