Eversmile New Jersey

The film is very slow, and the main character seems to make more enemies than friends. He may be a good dentist but he doesn't seem to be a people person. I admire a film about such a non mainstream topic, but it doesn't evoke much interest or empathy from me.

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.

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.

So there's probably no chance at all anyone would know about this movie if it hadn't starred Daniel Day-Lewis. Even with Day-Lewis in the lead role, it's still super obscure, and it honestly doesn't surprise me that this isn't well-known. That being said, it's so odd that I think it almost qualifies as something that deserves cult status... but I do have to emphasize the "almost" there, because it's pretty boring in parts, and definitely not a riot from start to finish.

But it is odd in a compelling way, and though I think it was supposed to be a comedy, I'm not sure it was always funny for the reasons it wanted to be. Plot-wise, it concerns a very "passionate" dentist riding across Argentina on a motorcycle, generally yelling at people who don't look after their teeth while ranting about cavities. Day-Lewis commits as he always does, and when his performance is coupled with the odd screenplay, the results are uncomfortable, confusing, and sometimes hilarious.

The dialogue needs to be heard to be believed, but some highlights include Day-Lewis saying things like:

• "Ignorance is not the enemy. Tooth decay is the enemy."
• "I had a wonderful dream... Everybody had their teeth removed."
• "The lord made tooth decay, but he also made dentists like me."
• "The world is collapsing outside, and I have an erection."

The whole thing is kind of unhinged, and though there are some really slow moments, it might be almost worth slogging through to uncover some of the particularly funny (and strange) moments. Eversmile New Jersey is probably Day-Lewis's weirdest film, and I'm sure he's happy that it's also probably his most obscure (but here I am, doing my part to unearth it and the bizarre stuff it contains within).

When I rented this, I had no idea what to expect. In my opinion, it is a brilliant deadpan surreal comedy. Daniel Day Lewis's fierce quest to spread dental hygiene consciousness in Patagonia is utterly absurd but told as if it is the most natural and ordinary thing in the world. From his confrontation with a bandit who comes to him to have a tooth pulled to his theological debate with an elderly monk who refuses treatment, every inane adventure is told with complete conviction. After he learns that pandas have trumped dentistry, he must face despair, self-doubt, and self-loathing.

Daniel Day Lewis is an astonishing actor--he is a complete chameleon who becomes whoever he acts. He is always different; consider My Beautiful Laundrette, a Room with a View, My Left Foot, In the Name of the Father, The Unbearable Lightness of Being--each role is utterly unlike the other. In Eversmile, New Jersey, you can see what Daniel Day Lewis might have been like in a Monty Python movie.

Finally, the footage of Patagonia is bleak and stunning. That alone would be enough to make the movie worth seeing.