TrueJoshNight
Truly Dreadful Film
Konterr
Brilliant and touching
KnotStronger
This is a must-see and one of the best documentaries - and films - of this year.
InformationRap
This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.
Poor Yorick
This movie is an astounding achievement. Light-hearted, ironic, farcical, profound. 15 years after first watching it, I still love this film. Daniel Day Lewis' performance is mesmerizing. Mirjana Jokovic keeps up with him all the way. If only more movies could be so well cast. Fergus O'Connell (Lewis) fights a religious war against dental disease, reveres the great traveling dentists of the past, dedicates himself, mind, body, and soul, at every turn, to bringing his good news to everyone. But the world is filled with evil, misunderstanding, and corruption. His ideas threaten the dentist-sun theory of another practitioner. He is harassed and then seduced by evildoers. On a bad day, his lofty ideals fail him as he reacts with irrational fury to the mockery of the ignorant masses. Priests and thugs are equally blessed as he walks among them, bringing them all to dental salvation. In the end he comes up with a bizarre remarkable answer to the world's problems.This movie is low-budget, art-house, and deceptively straight-laced. It is all things which it isn't.
blaackbird
Well, it is indeed about a traveling dentist, and it is played totally straight in spite of its amazing plot. So I found myself at the end of the film asking whether the film-makers and cast could possibly be serious or if it was a clever dry comedy. Was it a spoof of other too serious films about a man with a mission who falls into depression when others fail to see his vision, or was it honestly trying to be one of those serious films? Well, I have no answer to these questions, so my review divides here. Comedy - cute spoof of some the sort of movies Day-Lewis might well be in from time to time. Drama - stupid movie about a traveling dentist in Patagonia.
bratmikey
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.
RNMorton
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.