Dr. T & the Women is a 2000 Satire film directed by Robert Altman and starring Richard Gere, along with Helen Hunt, Farrah Fawcett, Laura Dern, Shelley Long, Tara Reid, Kate Hudson, and Liv Tyler.
On the eve of his eldest daughter's wedding, wealthy Dallas gynecologist Dr. Sullivan Travis' (Gere) finds his life beginning to unravel as his beloved wife Kate (Fawcett) suddenly suffers a mental regression, behaving like a child. Meanwhile, bride-to-be Dee Dee (Hudson) is carrying on a secret affair with her maid of honor, Marilyn (Tyler), and Travis' youngest daughter Connie (Reid) is a conspiracy nut. Further compounding things is the arrival of Travis' alcoholic sister-in-law Peggy (Dern) and her three young daughters, who decide to move in, and Bree Davis (Hunt), a professional golfer who becomes Travis' lover.
This film contains examples of:
- Armored Closet Gay: Dee Dee is marrying a man to obscure her relationship with Marilyn.
- Book Ends: The very first conversation featuring Travis is about how his family is an all-female one, and he "wouldn't have it any other way". By the end of the film, he's so fed up with women that the very last line of the film is him excitedly exclaiming on successfully assisting a totally unrelated woman to give birth: "It's a boy! It's a boy! It's a beautiful boy!"
- Clean, Pretty Childbirth: Doctor Travers finds himself in a remote village where a woman is in labor. Being a ob/gyn, Doc Travers assists in the delivery of a baby that emerges clean and dry, and about 3 months old. A live baby was used in this scene, and even appears in the credits, but the mother was an obstetric training dummy meant to teach first responders how to "catch" during an emergency delivery.
- Coming Out to Spouse: Dee Dee Travers is engaged to be married, but she invites her college roommate Marilyn as a bridesmaid. Dee Dee's younger sister, Connie, suspects the two women are Lipstick Lesbians and cautions her father about this. Doctor Travers dismisses Connie's suspicions, but they prove true when the bride jilts her groom at the altar to run off with Marilyn.
- Conspiracy Theorist: Connie is obsessed with conspiracy theories. Because of this, Travis is initially convinced that her warnings about Dee Dee and Marilyn's secret tryst are just another one of her theories.
- Did Not Get the Girl: Towards the end, Travis proposes to Bree. She rejects him.
- Fan Disservice: Early in the film, Kate suffers a mental breakdown and romps naked in a fountain. There is something very unsettling about a naked mature woman acting like a child.
- Gainax Ending: Rejected by Bree, Dr. T runs off to Mexico, gets lost and is found by a group of Mexican children who enlist his help in delivering a baby (it's a boy!). And then the movie ends.
- I Call It "Vera": The film opens with Doctor Sullivan Travers deep in Texas plains with his close friends. They're engaged in Spontaneous Skeet Shooting at golf balls struck from a tee. Doc T steps up with his Baikal over/under, and smoothly blasts a golf ball mid-flight, then gives his shotgun a loving pat right beside an engraved plate on the upper stock that reads "Bernadette Rose."
- Naked Nutter: The plot truly kicks off when Kate Travis mentally regresses to childhood, strips off all her clothes, and plays naked in a nearby fountain — resulting in her being committed to a mental hospital.
- Secretly Gay Activity: Dee Dee uses the seemingly endless preparations for her impending wedding as an excuse to spend lots of time with her maid of honor Marilyn, who is also her secret lover.
- Spontaneous Skeet Shooting: The film gives the first look at Doctor Sullivan Travers deep in Texas plains with his close friends. They've made a sport of shooting at golf balls struck from a tee. Doc T steps up with his Baikal over/under, "Bernadette Rose," and smoothly blasts the golf ball mid-flight. At this point, he's large and in charge of his life, master of his domain; this doesn't last.
