Genre: Comedy / Mystery / Crime / Thriller
Length: 1h 33m 51s
Director: David Atkins (III)
Tagline: Crime Is Not Only Done By Criminals.
Plot outline: Novocaine, an edgy, unpredictable crime thriller, stars Steve Martin as prosperous dentist Frank Sangster whose well-ordered existence is thrown into turmoil when an alluring new patient draws him into a seedy underworld or sex, drugs and murder. Summary written by Anonymous
Comment: I had not yet decided if I wanted to rent "Novocaine" when I found it for free at the local library. I like Steve Martin in almost everything he is in, and I figured I'd like this one. It is the kind of movie that, as it unfolds I find myself thinking "why did he (or she) do that?" It is the kind of movie that you just have to give the director and actors a chance and hope it all comes together at the end. This one doesn't, even with a great cast, I found the end to be a bit anticlimactic, to say the least. SPOILERS - DON'T READ FURTHER IF YOU HAVEN'T SEEN THE FILM YET. The story is not revealed in this straight-line manner, but the dentist (Steve Martin), a "by-the-book" guy, has a younger brother (Elias Koteas) who is envious of his wealth, and an assistant (Laura Dern) who is also his fiancee, and she with the brother work out a scheme to have the dentist framed for a murder and get all his wealth. They lure an addict (Helena Bonham Carter) to town to catch his eye, steal his drugs, and fiancee will frame him for murder by "biting" the victim with an impression of the dentist's teeth. In the end fiancee shoots brother, dentist finds him in chair, pulls all his own teeth after a shot of "novocaine" and places them in his dead brother's mouth, sets the place on fire, authorities think the dentist is dead, he and the girl end up in a foreign country, he's juggling, she's pregnant, he said "I never did feel like I belonged there." The writer/director has a father and two brothers who are dentists, and he always wanted to write a script basd on denistry. He did, it isn't very good. The film doesn't really come off like a comedy, although Laura Dern acts a bit over-the-top most of the time. And it doesn't really come off like a good drama, although Steve Martin is very good. I don't think most viewers will like "Novicaine." The DVD is very well done, the picture is sharp, the extras mildly interesting. Better than a "3", not as good as a "7".
IMDB Rating: 6.1
Country: USA
Language:
Subtitels: No ()
DVDs: 1
IMDB address
| Actors: | ||
| Steve Martin | as | Dr. Frank Sangster |
| Helena Bonham Carter | as | Susan Ivey |
| Laura Dern | as | Jean Noble |
| Elias Koteas | as | Harlan Sangster |