NOVOCAINE
US, 2001, 95 minutes, Colour.
Steve Martin, Helena Bonham Carter, Laura Dern, Scott Caan, Elias Koteas, Chelcie Ross, Lynn Thigpen.
Directed by David Atkins.
Novocaine, as the title might indicate, is set in a dentist's surgery. The director is David Atkins, who had written the screenplay for Emir Kusturica, as well as oddball film, Arizona Dreaming. This film is, in many ways, oddball because it is a mixture of the film noir with screwball comedy with a touch of the 21st century in the focus being on drugs and drug dealing.
Steve Martin, who had played a dentist in The Little Shop of Horrors, seems at home in his surgery (the notes indicate that director David Atkins' family were dentists as well). He begins his story with the kind of voice-over reminiscent of such films as Double Indemnity, which indicates a femme fatale, a professional man who succumbs to her as well as an investigation for crimes committed. This time Steve Martin is seduced by Helena Bonham Carter who, as it transpires, is after prescriptions for drugs (and a whole lot of other complications which are finally revealed in the terms of a murder mystery). Martin is assisted in his surgery by Laura Dern, a bright and breezy nurse who practised martial arts in her spare time. Elias Koteas appears as Martin's brother. Scott Caan is Helena Bonham Carter's druggie brother, and there is an unbilled cameo appearance by Kevin Bacon, who is very funny as an actor accompanying the detectives and referring all the means of investigation and styles to himself.
The film is a mixture of the humorous and the serious. Whether they blend together is another matter. Perhaps the difficulty is that audiences are expecting Steve Martin to be funny all the time (even though he has done serious roles in such films as Grand Canyon and The Spanish Prisoner). This means that while the film is a reasonably enjoyable pastime, it doesn't stay strongly in the memory.
1. Comic? Human? Serious? The title, the dentist setting, drugs, numbness?
2. Setting, homes, the surgery, hotels? The domestic world? Professional world? The musical score?
3. Frank’s story, Steve Martin and the role? Dentist, seen at work, the range of clients, his staff? Meeting with Susan, the experience with her, dental concerns, the root canal, her return, the interaction, her seduction? The prescription, 50 tablets instead of five? Her drinking, stealing the drugs? Frank, the hotel, confronting her? Her continued seduction? The effect on her, on Frank?
4. The character of Susan, eccentric, the drugs, her relationship with Frank, at the dentists, seduction, taking the drugs?
5. Harlan, Frank’s brother, the relationship between the two? Jean, his death?
6. Duane, Susan’s brother, drugs and addiction? Protective of his sister? The bed, a disguise and the trick, the confrontation with Frank? The attack, the scissors, Frank stabbing Duane? His death?
7. The character of Jean, in herself, her relationship with Frank? With Harlan? The further revelations about her and her character?
8. The drug investigation authority and the visits to Frank? The deaths, the police and the interrogations?
9. The comic touch with Lance, his character, performing, consulting with Frank, the interviews?
10. The issues of teeth, teeth marks, reconstruction of dental plates? The identification? Implanted in the destroyed corpses? Identification through the teeth?
11. The revelation about Jean, her relationship with Harlan, with Duane, with Frank? Being the mastermind? The death of Harlan – and his holding the video? Her being accused?
12. Susan and Frank, the setup of the false identity with the corpse? Going to France? The future?
