“THE SECRET LIVES OF DENTISTS”: Saw the movie yesterday, per parental recommendation. It’s excellent. I can’t add to the chorus of married people who have said it is one of the best representations of real marriage that they’ve seen on the silver screen, but I will say that many, many of the moments rang exactly true to me. The kids act like real kids. There’s a subtle moment where someone says, “I love you,” and means it–and it’s exactly the wrong thing to say. This is a hard-hitting movie. It’s great art and an intense pro-marriage statement. There’s even a Cat Power song!

Tiny quibbles: The voice-over narration sucks. Fortunately it only appears at the beginning and end, but sheesh, don’t people know that voice-overs are the classic What Not to Do of adapting novels to the screen?

There’s too much imbalance between husband and wife. Although you definitely see both characters’ viewpoints, the husband is so completely the children’s caretaker that audience sympathy sways too much to his side–it’s not really a fair fight for sympathy between him and his wife. There’s a scene that basically parallels the wife and the children in a way that only reinforces this overly-heroic portrayal of the husband. (I should be clear: The husband is not portrayed as a flawless icon, at all. And like I said, you definitely see where his wife is coming from. But I think the movie would have been more powerful if their roles in the family were more balanced.)

Sometimes the music is too insistent.

But those are really minor complaints compared to the richness of the movie’s moral vision and the acuity of its observation of family life. Do yourself a favor and go see this.

Bring Kleenex. Even if you don’t think you’ll need it.