Reviews: Novocaine

[JoBlo]

JoBlo's 7/10 review of NOVOCAINE can be found here: http://www.joblo.com/novocaine.htm

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[Puck Bond]

Novocaine 7/10...

Novocaine is a pretty dark funny film about a dentist's perfect life gone wrong. i liked Stve Martin in this as a guy who is loving life, and then along comes a sexy chic, and his whole life is turned upside down. Helena Bonham Carter is great as the drugged out, crazy and sexy chic that fucks Martin and fucks up his life. She seems born to play this type of role...alot like her Fight Club character...I could have done without some of the supporting cast especially Caan as Carter's demented brother...It was weird,crazy darkly funny...and I liked how Martin found a way to set things right in the end.

[27Bstroke6]

I really liked this movie. I love the see the regular guy suddenly thrown into a world of shit. In the beginning Steve Martin plays a goodie goodie dentist. By the end, he is a man on the edge with nothing to loose. Helena Bonham Carter plays her stock "weardo" role from Fight Club. Carter didnt break any new acting ground here but she looked GREAT doing it. The ending of the film is a little out of left field but i wont spoil it for you. This one is really worth a look if you enjoy movies like Red Rock West or A Simple Plan .

[movieguy1021]

http://www.geocities.com/samsmoviereviews/novocaine.art

Steve Martin has once again proved himself worthy by acting very well in a comedy. The movie itself, however, doesn’t do as well. You see, Martin is a dentist named Frank Sangster who is quite successful. He has many people and hygienists working under him, including his girlfriend Jean (Laura Dern). However, one day Susan Ivey (Helena Bonham Carter) wanders into his office, needing a root canal, but gets lots of drugs instead. Frank is getting scrutinized for, supposedly, selling drugs to patients. Soon, he gets involved in murder and falls in way over his head.

The major flaw of this movie? Not funny. I laughed a couple times, but I suspect almost all of them were forced, because I thought they were humorous, but not enough to make me chuckle, or even snort. Martin is, of course, best in comedies, but to make them work, he needs more than his name and face. He does have great comedic timing, but he just couldn’t pull it off. Not to say he wasn’t bad at acting, he just didn’t make me laugh. Carter, though nowhere near her performance in Fight Club, did a very good job, and she seemed to have chemistry with Martin. Dern, however, seemed to be out of place, and just went in and out of the movie at times. That brings me to my next point, which is a good thing. Many of the events that occur early on in the movie that you wouldn’t even remember come back later and become involved in the story.

There were lots of scenes, with cool transitions in between them, with a few of them being X-Rays of the characters as they are moving, but others are a purple bar that sweeps across. Very cool. Martin provides a narration that is scarce and would have been better if it had been more widely used or not used at all. And, many of the plot developments were somewhat heavy for a comedy (no matter how dark). Novocaine relied on mayhem to make us laugh, which I didn’t buy.

I also thought it seemed like Martin was trying to reach to an older audience (more than the teenagers) by constant swearing that was not necessary. It also had many grisly images that I didn’t think needed to belong there (also included is that teddy bear…brrr). Maybe it would have been better if Martin had made this as a drama (which would have worked), because of its dark comedy style that seems to overtake it sometimes. Many secondary characters were unnecessary.

I did, however, like the mystery that overtook the story. I found it more enjoyable than the supposed humor. The ending, nonetheless, had everything explained and wrapped up in a nice little package and express shipped to our hearts (well, maybe not that last part) and was unsatisfactory. If it had been more ambiguous, it would be able to be more believable. I was thinking, all the way through the movie, that everyone tried way too hard to make a substantial comedy. A character’s breakdown at the end didn’t make be believe him/her.

“Pretty funny, huh?” a character asks during the movie, when another gives a negative response. I couldn’t agree more.

4/10