Novocaine
dir. David Atkins
Artisan Entertainment
Novocaine recalls a certain kind of movie.
The tag line will tell you that a wild, hot dame led the meek, upright
man into hell. Unannounced and initially unwanted, she rolled into his life
and whipped his integrity into mush. With her charms, she scammed him into
trading his safety for excitement, his respectability for sex and his
soul for a moment of her attention. The movie poster will always accuse
her, but remember that every seduction has two players: the worldly temptress
and the willing target.
In Novocaine, the man who, to his ruin, closes his eyes and leaves his mouth parted
for the first kiss is dentist Frank Sangster (Steve Martin).
Frank has lost his passion for his lucrative practice and his anal
retentive fiancé, Jean Noble (Laura Dern). He dreams of lazy days in France and a
tornado powerful enough to whisk him there. Frank's too timid to go
searching for trouble, but he's open to embracing it. Both his will
and flesh are weak.
Cue the siren music. Because, you see, men like Frank give off a scent
and here comes our latest Eve, nibbling on an apple. In the '20s and '30s,
these silver screen temptresses wore red. In the '50s and '60s, they smoked.
These days, they're portrayed by Helena Bonham Carter. In Novocaine,
Carter is Susan Ivy, a conniving, flirtatious drug
addict. She comes with tons of baggage, most notably her volatile brother who
can't keep his hands to himself. (For good measure, Susan is also as needy as
an infant.)
To Frank, Susan looks like an irresistible escape. When she pleads for
him to write her a prescription for 10 Demerol to get her through the
night, he knows she's using him and he wants it to happen again. So he scolds
her, tells her she can only have five and scribbles his name for the order
to prove he's willing to play. Protest, compromise, acquiescence.
As way of thanks, Susan repeatedly returns, demanding more each time and
daring Frank to break his chains. Soon Frank cuts away from his commitments,
his code of ethics and the law.
While a clever bad woman and a slow good man often make for a fine
movie, Novocaine is too gutless to deliver on the potential of a powder keg
coupling. The movie does not follow its principal characters to their
logical and doomed endings. It lacks the courage to slap Frank with the
damnation he earns, or, at the very least, to leave his world off-kilter.
Instead, Novocaine attempts to force-feed a saccharine conclusion that
is a betrayal to its sinful pair and the audience. It's as if Novocaine's
director and writer, David Atkins, thought the audience would riot if
heavy consequences crushed Steve Martin.
And so one exists the theater crying for Carter. What a waste!
With her eyes, cheekbones and attitude, Carter has proved that she is the
best at breathing life into wayward female characters. In Fight Club, Carter's
Marla was electric enough to shock life into the veins of two very different men.
Even in the remake of Planet of the Apes,
when she played coy under a mask of monkey makeup, Carter's Ari found a man
willing to turn his back on humanity in order to press his lips to hers.
In Novocaine, her particular talents are not fully tapped. The plot abruptly
strips her of her selfishness, drug habit and disloyalty. The story
steals her light. There is simply nothing worse than seeing an amoral woman
go good.
— Rasheed Newson (rasheednewson@hotmail.com)
