Novocaine (2001) * * *

 

Directed by:  David Atkins

Starring:  Steve Martin, Helena Bonham-Carter, Laura Dern, Elias Koteas, Lynne Thigpen, Scott Caan, Keith David, Kevin Bacon

Dr. Frank Sangster (Martin) runs a thriving dental practice, has a loving, albeit high-strung fiancee who works with him, and is bored.  We should all have his problems.  Frank finds excitement when he lays eyes on Susan (Bonham-Carter), a new patient who seems to want root canal or the drugs which treat it and not in that order.  Frank prescribes her five painkillers.  The pharmacist calls questioning why he prescribed fifty, with Susan obviously altering the prescription.  Frank is outraged, until he sees Susan again and starts listening to the impulses originating from below his waist.  He makes love to her in the dentist's chair and away we go. 

Susan is a drug addict as is Frank's brother Harlan (Koteas), whom Frank takes in even though he allegedly once tried to rape Jean (Dern), Frank's aforementioned fiancee.  Or at least that's her story of what happened.  Throughout Novocaine, we see Jean isn't as she seems, while Susan, while troubled, is more up front about her issues.  One of Susan's biggest concerns is her wild-card brother Duane (Caan), whose need for drugs is more pronounced than even his sister's, and may have incestuous feelings for her.  Duane shows up at the practice one day making a scene and then is soon found murdered in Frank's home. The troubles for Frank don't end there.  He's clearly being set up, but by whom?  One of the joys of Novocaine is how it toys with numerous possibilities. 

Frank is the prime suspect, even though he's innocent, but he also doesn't want to reveal his affair with Susan or the other developments which occur for fear of going to prison or even losing Susan.  The movie concludes with an unlikely series of events including Frank pulling all of his teeth out and switching them with a dead man who was murdered at his office.  I'm not sure I buy the final act.  However, the first 85-90 percent of the movie is comic noir at its finest with performances by Martin, Dern, and Bonham-Carter which reveal hidden dimensions telling us that we thought we knew these people, and were delighted to find out we didn't.