Breast Men

After several different breast-augmentation processes have failed, plastic surgeon Dr. Kevin Saunders (David Schwimmer) invents a successful saline-filled breast implant. His mentor, Dr. William Larson (Chris Cooper), laughs at the idea and reminds Saunders of past failures in this somewhat dubious area of plastic surgery. Larson, however, changes his mind when he begins to dwell on the lack of respect that plastic surgeons receive from the medical community; he feels that Saunders's discovery might lend the profession a certain amount of prestige. He has Saunders's saline mold sent to a technical lab. There, it is streamlined and filled with silicone rather than saline. After being laughed at by the medical board, Larson and Saunders then find a woman to experiment on to prove their point. The operation is a success. They open a clinic, which is floundering until Saunders advertises it, against Larson's wishes. Suddenly, business booms. Later, Saunders operates on former schoolmate Laura Pierson (Emily Procter), whom he marries and hires as his nurse.

Saunders tires of Larson claiming all the credit for his creation, and so they split. Saunders's business is dying until he meets strip-club owner, Gerald Kraemica (Matt Frewer), who sends his dancers over for breast enhancements. Saunders then falls into a fast life of drugs, girls, and money, which culminates in divorce.

Several years later, a TV news special discloses that some women are suffering leakage and other problems as a result of having had breast implants. The resulting lawsuits produce a scare that results in the loss of Saunders's company. Larson has similar financial troubles, and eventually suffers a fatal heart attack. Years later, Saunders is running a small plastic surgery business when Laura appears, asking to have her painful implants removed. This gives him the impetus to start a new company--one which removes old silicone implants and replaces them with safer saline ones. The business is a big success, but soon after, Saunders is killed in an auto wreck.

Coming from a male-chauvinist perspective that seems to say that women have little confidence about themselves unless they've got balloon-like breasts, BREAST MEN is really intended for mammary-fixated males. To underscore this point of view, the film features interstitial testimonials from women who are unhappy because they have small or sagging breasts; during these segments, the camera is focused squarely on the women's chests so as not to expose their identities. This sophmoric bit of humor stands out like a sore thumb; the filmmakers otherwise keep their leering humor in check, and at the service of the plot. Director Lawrence O'Neil keeps the proceedings moving at a brisk pace, while John Stockwell's solid script smoothly links together the different time periods depicted. Schwimmer merely duplicates his schlemiel-like "Ross" persona from the TV series "Friends" for the primary section of the film--a standout sequence has him soliciting prospective breast-implant patients on the street. Despite this seeming typecasting, Schwimmer aptly handles the character's later, rather swift transformation from loser to drug-addled playboy. The rest of the cast performs admirably, though none stand out. (Extreme profanity, violence, substance abuse, nudity, sexual situations.)