**1/2 (out of ****)
Starring Steve Martin, Helena Bonham-Carter, Laura Dern, Elias Koteas, Scott Caan, Keith David, and Lynne Thigpen
Directed by David Atkins & written by Atkins and Paul Felopulos
2001 R
“Novocaine” adheres to the rules of film noir, even if its sunny suburb hardly has the look of the film noir. It tells of an essentially moral hero who makes one immoral mistake, and then the walls come tumbling down, inexorably, bit by bit, with an irreversible kind of logic. The movie relies too much on narration and goes in circles one or two many times to be completely satisfying. But I have a soft spot for its quirkiness, its knowledge that having everything “just right” is not the key to happiness, and the fact that it seems to know a lot about dentistry.
The basically good man is a dentist, played by Steve Martin. His dentist in “Little Shop of Horrors” was the best thing about that movie, but here he is much more ordinary, and plays for laughs only through a deadpan exasperation at having to deal with so many weird circumstances. He has everything “just right,” in an upper middle class, professional kind of way: he has a nice house, a good practice, and an attractive fiance (Laura Dern), who is almost obsessive-compulsive about keeping things in order. But, as he looks too long into his office painting of a French countryside, he knows something’s missing.
That something might be the dame (Helena Bonham-Carter) who walks into his life and sits in the dentist’s chair. Crazy-haired, bitchy, and frequently wearing clothes that expose her underwear, Bonham-Carter plays a much toned-down version of her miscreant from “Fight Club.” She is, of course, a flame for the dentist’s smoldering malaise. Needless to say, our man Martin gets pulled into her world, whose existing population includes a reckless, super-punk brother (Scott Caan), missing anesthetic, doctored insurance forms, and a dead body. Before the dentist knows what hit him, he’s keeping secrets from his fiance, not-quite-answering police investigators, and sneaking off to meet the dame in the hope of straightening things out, but, of course, just making things worse.
“Novocaine” plays fair, with no crazy secrets pulled from the past. It shows us its players and locations and then lets the cards fall where they may. In addition to the fiance, the dame, and the dame’s brother, the dentist’s deadbeat brother (Elias Koteas) is also in the mix. And there’s pulling teeth, lots and lots of pulling teeth. The key locations are the dentist’s house, office, and the dame’s hotel, and if this seems like too few places and people, then maybe you have an idea of why I felt like I was going in circles.
The movie talks dentist talk convincingly, which is neat because, really, how many other movies have this much to do with dentists? The best thing about “Novocaine” is how everyone seems a little confused, embarrassed, and awkward when it comes to finding themselves in these sometimes preposterous noir circumstances. The dentist doesn’t know the etiquette for skirting a rooftop to avoid policemen, and ends up falling on the hood of a squad car. And the script by Paul Felopulos and director David Atkins—talk about quirky! I like the jailer (Roy Hytower) who kept getting nose bleeds for no reason and didn’t think to handcuff Martin to anything stronger than plywood, and I like how disinterested the police detective (Keith David) is in solving the murder. I like the sex in the dentist’s chair and the fact that Martin’s brother passed out while trying to paint a room in his underwear. But, just like that dentist’s life, “Novocaine” seems to be missing something. Whatever it was, it caused a friend of mine to throw up his hands in the middle and cry, “how many writers did this movie have?”
Finished October 9, 2003
Copyright © 2003 Friday & Saturday Night
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