Breast Men

Based on true events, Breast Men follows a pair of doctors (David Schwimmer’s Kevin Saunders and Chris Cooper’s William Larson) as they experience fame and fortune after essentially inventing modern breast implants. Filmmaker Lawrence O’Neil, armed with John Stockwell’s screenplay, delivers an exceedingly run-of-the-mill yet mostly watchable drama that benefits from the strong work of its two leads, with the stirring, sympathetic efforts of both Schwimmer and Cooper elevating the proceedings on a fairly regular basis (ie both actors are, generally speaking, better than the movie often seems to deserve). It’s clear, as well, that Breast Men‘s mild success is due in large part to the inherently compelling nature of its narrative, as O’Neil progresses through the familiar rise-and-fall storyline at a brisk pace and peppers the production with a handful of engaging, stand-out sequences – which, for the most part, essentially compensates for the less-than-fresh bent of the movie’s structure. By the time the predictably downbeat finale rolls around, Breast Men has confirmed its place as a rather cut-and-dried, by-the-numbers endeavor that passes the time in an entirely forgettable way.

**1/2 out of ****