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.
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