NOVOCAINE (2001)
A Film Review
Copyright Dragan Antulov 2005
Steve Martin gave one of the most memorable performances of
his career in the role of dentist in 1986 version of LITTLE SHOP
OF HORRORS. Fifteen years later Martin again played member
of that profession in NOVOCAINE, 2001 black comedy written
and directed by David Atkins.
Martin plays the film's protagonist, Dr. Frank Sangster, dentist
who lives in Chicago suburb and has everything he can dream
of - successful practice, plenty of money and beautiful assistant
Jean Noble (played by Laura Dern) with whom he is about to
marry. His perfect life starts to unravel with the surprise visit of
his drug abusing brother Harlan (played by Elias Koteas), but
the real problems come with the new and attractive patient
Susan Ivey (played by Helena Bonham Carter). Although
experienced enough to realise that the dental problems aren't
her primary motive for her arrival, he nevertheless decides to
help her with painkillers and later has opportunity to realise
some of his sex favourite fantasies with her. But his brief
moment of bliss is followed with the escalating series of
problems - mysterious disappearance of his drug supply, DEA
investigation and murder.
Originality of NOVOCAINE isn't in the plot, which is
borrowed from the hundreds of film noir classics, but in the
attitude with which Atkins treats his story. Characters and
actions that could have been revolting in a serious film are here
acceptable due to the ironic distance of Atkins' script. As a
comedy, NOVOCAINE isn't particularly funny, but it is
entertaining enough to arouse imagination of post-Tarantino
audience. Atkins keeps the film interesting by throwing some
unusual characters in the plot - one example is television actor
(played by Kevin Bacon) who follows police investigation in
order to prepare for the role. This quirkiness, however, doesn't
always work. Just after the ingenious plot resolution, Atkins
presents audience with the epilogue which is both artificial and
predictable. But in the end viewers are nevertheless going to be
satisfied. NOVOCAINE features some fine acting, especially in
the case of Martin, and Atkins' direction is more than adequate
for this sort of film. And because of that NOVOCAINE deserves
recommendation.
RATING: 6/10 (++)
Review written on March 17th 2005
Dragan Antulov a.k.a. Drax
http://film.purger.com
Film Reviews in Croatian/Filmske recenzije na hrvatskom
http://draxreview.blogspot.com
Draxblog Movie Reviews
http://www.ofcs.org
Online Film Critics Society
========== X-RAMR-ID: 39569 X-Language: en X-RT-ReviewID: 1370726 X-RT-TitleID: 1109933 X-RT-SourceID: 1650 X-RT-AuthorID: 1307 X-RT-RatingText: 6/10
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