I have enjoyed Steve Martin movies for many years now. I have only seen him in comedies, never in any serious or darker roles. I think I read that he did play a villain in a recent movie, but I can’t remember the name of the movie, and I didn’t see that movie. I recently rented Novocaine, a movie in which Martin plays a very different type of character than I have ever seen him play before. This role helps to show just how talented he is. Steve Martin has also written a play and two or three books.

CAST

Steve Martin - Dr. Frank Sangster
Helena Bonham Carter - Susan Ivey
Laura Dern - Jean Noble
Elias Koteas - Harlan Sangster
Scott Caan - Duane
Lynne Thigpen - Pat

David Atkins - Writer/Director
Michael Weisler - Executive Producer
Daniel Rosenberg - Producer
Paul Mones - Producer

Novocaine is rated R for some violence, sexuality, nudity, language, and drug content. The movie is 95 minutes long. It was released in theaters in the fall of 2001, but I think it was only a limited release. It never came to the theater in my town anyway. No children of any age should see this movie.

The plot of the movie is a bit complicated, so it will take a little while for me to explain basically what is going on. I’m not going to spoil the ending or anything though.

PLOT

Frank Sangster has a perfect life. He is a dentist with a very successful practice. He is engaged to a beautiful, organized woman, who also works as his dental hygienist. Jean refuses to take part in Frank’s fantasy of having sex in the exam chair though. Pat, his office manager, keeps the office running smoothly. Everything was going fine until Frank saw a new patient, Susan Ivey. He seems to be attracted to her when he first sees her. After a quick exam, he discovers that she needs a root canal. The procedure is scheduled for 7:30 the next morning. Since she complained of pain, he gave her a prescription for five Demerol. She changes it to fifty, and Frank covers for her when the pharmacist calls to double check on the prescription.

When Frank arrives home that night, he discovers that the door is open. He starts to explore, picking up a statue of a huge tooth to use as a weapon. He discovers his brother Harlan passed out on the floor in the bathroom with red paint all over the place. Harlan decided to repaint the bathroom. He also helped himself to some drugs he found in the medicine cabinet. Frank, forgetting that he was supposed to meet Jean, spent the rest of the night with Harlan.

The next morning, Susan didn’t show for her appointment. That seems to bother Frank all day. That evening, she does show up, claiming that she thought the appointment was for 7:30 in the evening. Frank ends up agree to do the root canal then, even though everyone else has left for the day. She asks him some suggestive questions, one thing leads to another, and they have sex in the exam chair. The next day, things start to fall apart for Frank. Jean is upset with him for missing another date. A lot of drugs are missing from the office. Someone from the DEA shows up asking Frank questions about the drugs. Frank thinks Susan was involved somehow, but he covers for her.

Frank goes to confront Susan, and learns that her brother, Duane, is also involved. Frank says he wants the drugs back within a certain amount of time or he is going to the cops. The next day Duane shows up at Frank’s office and trashes it. Frank goes to see Susan again, and gets into a fight with Duane. Frank takes him time getting home. When he gets there, he finds a dead body. He becomes a suspect. Even when his life is falling apart, he is still drawn to Susan.

Who stole the drugs from Frank’s office? Who was murdered? How did the body end up in Frank’s house? Who is the killer? What happens to Frank? You really didn’t think I was going to tell you did you? If you want to know how the answers to these questions, watch the movie.

**End of Plot Discussion**

Novocaine is a dark comedy, so not everyone will like it. It is a very unique movie. I think this is the only movie I have seen where the main character was a dentist. I’ve seen a few movies where supporting characters were dentists, but not to many. A lot of people aren’t too fond of dentists in general, so maybe that is why there have been too many dentist characters in movies. Steve Martin has played a dentist before, in The Little Shop of Horrors. He wasn’t a main character in that movie. Frank is very different from that character.

There is mystery and a few suspenseful moments in Novocaine. The mystery aspect of the movie relates to who the killer is. The suspenseful moments happen here and there throughout the move. I’m not going to be any more specific than that because I don’t want to spoil the movie for anyone who hasn’t seen it. Nothing in this movie was predictable. I never knew what was going to happen next. Some very unexpected things happen, especially something near the end of the movie. The plot of the movie is very original. Just the fact that the main character is a dentist is different, but several other things happen that are just bizarre. There are some very funny moments in the movie, sometimes during a scene when something serious was going on. For example, when Duane was trashing the office, Jean jumped forward and was all ready to use her martial arts to defend Frank. What she was doing just looked very funny. Also, when Frank came home and thought there might be a burglar, I thought it was hilarious to see him walking through the house looking for an intruder clutching the giant tooth as a weapon.

Novocaine does have one or two violent scenes. In one particular scene, something unpleasant happens to one of the characters. This is shown, and it is rather graphic. It was not pretty to see. When Frank discovers the dead body in his house, the body is shown. It doesn’t look too nice either. Something else happens near the end of the movie. This event isn’t really violent, but it is a bit gory and not pleasant to see. People who don’t like to see violent or gory scenes in movies should probably avoid Novocaine.

There are some sexual situations and some sex acts in Novocaine. There is some brief nudity in one of these scenes. Steve Martin is in all of the scenes of a sexual nature. I’ve never seen Steve Martin in sex scenes before, and it was a little strange to see him in them. There aren’t many of these scenes, and they aren’t overly explicit, but they could offend some people who don’t like to see nudity or sex scenes in movies.

There were some unique camera angles used through Novocaine. Sometimes there were bits of a scene shown in some sort of x-ray type image. The skeletons of the people in the scenes were shown, and they were moving, so it wasn’t exactly an x-ray, but the images did look like an x-ray except for the fact that they were moving. I have no idea what this is called. I’ve never seen this used in a movie before, but I did find it to be interesting. Music played at different times during the movie. None of it really stood out to me, but I did hear someone singing about novocaine once.

At different times during Novocaine, Frank is heard narrating the story. From the things he said, Frank is telling the story later after the events have happened. The narrating wasn’t distracting. I think it added to the movie.

The acting was great in Novocaine. Steve Martin was wonderful as Frank. He still had some funny moments in the movie, but Frank is more of a serious character. Frank is the most serious character I have seen Martin play. I’ve always thought that he was talented, but this movie really shows the range he can play and be believable. There were some very unusual things that happened to Frank in the movie, but Martin was believable no matter what was happening to Frank.

I hadn’t seen Helena Bonham Carter in many movies before watching Novocaine. From what I know of the movies she has been in before, Susan is a somewhat different character than she has played before. I know she has been in several period movies, playing more serious characters before, so Susan is different from those characters. Susan uses drugs, and Carter really looked and acted like she was high at times. Laura Dern didn’t have as many scenes, but she was really good as Frank’s perfectionist wife to be. Scott Caan was very believable as the hot head Duane. Kevin Bacon briefly appears in a few scenes. He doesn’t have much to do, but he is good and funny in his limited screen time.

CHARACTERS

Dr. Frank Sangster - He is a dentist with a successful practice. He is engaged to his dental hygienist. He does seem to be unsatisfied by a few things, but overall he is happy. Then everything falls apart when he sees a new patient. He is attracted to the patient, and realizes that he isn’t as happy with his life and he thought. He is willing to lie to the DEA to protect some women he hardly knows. He does what he can to help his troubled brother, but he isn’t willing to put up with his brother abusing drugs again. Frank has some violent tendencies that were hidden before. He is also willing to something rather drastic at one point.

Susan Ivey - Frank’s new patient. She uses drugs and runs cons with her brother. She has made a habit of hitting dentists to get prescriptions for pain killers. She goes along with what her brother wants most of the time, but she doesn’t seem to like him too much. She is emotional at times. She ends up more involved with Frank than she planned.

Jean Noble - She is engaged to Frank. She is a dental hygienist and works with Frank. She studies some form of martial arts and is very good at it. She is very organized, and wants things to be in their place. She can be very focused.

Harlan Sangster - Frank’s younger brother. He has had problems with drugs in the past. He shows up at Frank’s house, looking for a place to stay. Harlan seems to resent Frank at times.

Duane - Susan’s brother. He is a hot head, and very willing to get into fights. He is very violent.

DVD EXTRAS

I rented Novocaine on DVD and it included some extra features.

Bitten - Some real dentists talk about forensic dentistry and how some things are done in actual police investigations. One of the dentists has worked on some famous cases, and he discussed his involvement in the cases. There were three or four different dentists talking about different things related to forensic dentistry during this. Some of them tie what they are talking about into something that happened in the movie. Only one of the dentists actually uses novocaine on patients, and he doesn’t use it often. They usually use other drugs instead. I had no idea that novocaine actually isn’t used by dentists that much. I thought this was very interesting.

Getting the Shot - Several of the cast and crew talk about making Novocaine. Some clips from the movie are shown, and the filming of a few other scenes is also shown.

Deleted Scenes - There are five scenes here, but one is really a blooper.

Music of Novocaine - This selection lists six of the songs that played during the movie. Clicking on the song titles causes a sample of the song to play. Information about the movie soundtrack is provided.

Trailers - There are two different trailers for Novocaine here to view. There are also trailers for five other movies.

Production Notes - This has some information about the movie that can be read. Still photos from the movie are shown as you advance through the information.

Cast and Crew - This is a list of some of the cast and crew of the movie. Clicking on one of the names allows you to read some more information about the career of that person. There is also a list of movies the person has worked on before.

I really enjoyed Novocaine, but it isn’t a movie for everyone. It will be too dark for some people. Fans of Steve Martin may not like this movie since it is so different from the movies he is best known for. People who like dark comedies may like this movie. It is worth checking out if you enjoy different, dark, movies.







Recommended:
Yes

Viewing Format: DVD
Suitability For Children: Not suitable for Children of any age