Novocaine

Most people experience the most pain they'll ever experience at the dentist. This is why the dentist's office has proven to be such fertile territory for low-grade slasher flicks. After all, when someone's arm gets ripped off, an audience merely speculates as to how painful it feels. But when someone's tooth gets ripped out - well, we're a lot closer to being able to imagine that. The only thing that typically comes between us and a world of hurt in that situation, after all, is some type of blessedly effective anesthetic.

This intersection of pain and chemical deliverance is what drives writer/director David Atkins' new film "Novocaine." Well, that and Steve Martin. Martin memorably played a dentist in the musical remake of "Little Shop of Horrors," and he has the perfect trustable face, avuncular yet severe manner, and comfortably doughy looks for the part. Here Martin is in his element as Frank Sangster, whose successful practice, idyllic relationship with his fiancé Jean Noble (Laura Dern), and personal safety all come into jeopardy as an intricate plot turns and twists toward an unexpected end.

It all starts with Susan Ivey (Helena Bonham Carter), who comes into Frank's office needing a root canal, seduces him with her dark, brilliant eyes and lack of substantial clothing, then steals all his office's narcotics while he post-coitally slumbers. This plot appears to have been hatched by Susan and her psychotic brother Duane (Scott Caan), but it doesn't take a D.D.S. to figure out that the sudden arrival of Frank's drug-addled, resentful brother Harlan (Elias Koteas) in Frank's comfortable home might be a bit more than coincidental. And how long can Frank keep all this from Jean, his prized ideal of an all-American wife, and a woman reluctant to take no for an answer when the real answer is obviously yes?

If this same stuff happened to a shoe salesman, it would be straight noir intrigue, but the dentist's has a special place in the American psyche, evoking nervous laughter to conceal creeping fear. Atkins' script never stops reminding you that we are following a dentist's life, especially in Sangster's framing voice-overs, which compare various stages of moral decay in the plot to various stages of enamel decay in human teeth. As the plot piles on complications and reversals, in fact, dental accoutrements become more and more important, until in the final scene (not to spoil anything) Frank must rely on his awesome periodontal powers to escape alive.

Thus, the predominant tone here is the black comedic, a tone reinforced by (a) the fact that all the minor characters are violent and/or stupid, (b) the fact that all the supporting characters are basically types, and (c) the fact that the lead character is played by Steve Martin. Martin does a wonderful job of making Sangster a slightly risible but basically sympathetic guy, the kind of guy you'd expect to become a repressed dentist at some point if he weren't already. There is no one who can hit and sustain a comedic tone better than Martin, and his subtlety and matchless precision push that subtle tinge of purposeful laughter into scenes that, played straight, would be laughable.

The remaining actors all play their types to the fullest. Bonham Carter plays down-on-their-luck heroin chicks like second nature now, especially with that pale, perfect skin, showing both decay and a strange hope. She doesn't have the comedy quite down, but she doesn't quite need to. Dern is appropriately regal (and often hilarious) as Noble, all self-containment and perfect faces for gloomy-seeming situations. Atkins' script gives his actors plenty to work with, and gives the audience plenty to enjoy; there's never a dull moment in these ninety-five minutes, what with sex scenes, plot twists and the obligatory medical-office tracking shots, which almost look like parodies of "E.R."

"Novocaine" is an insubstantial entertainment, but nevertheless an extravagantly pleasant one, and we have few enough of those in today's cinema. In fact, it's almost ironic. Most films today use capricious bombast, cardboard actors and other such assaults to put your brain to sleep, while a film named after an anesthetic much-beloved by dental patients uses fine writing and acting to keep your cerebrum awake and entertained.

Comedies Home

Movie Reviews Home

Spam-O-Matic Home