Steve Martin is believable as a dentist who sees his life spiraling out of control after a series of cascading lies sets him up as a murder suspect. What is not believable is the script, which seems to overlook common sense. Cops that fall asleep while guarding a suspect, and worse yet handcuffing a suspect to a flimsy bench in the court house. After an intriguing set up, everything has less and less logic. The proverbial happy ending is totally unbelievable, as is the supposed motivation for the entire storyline. If you want to see a pretty good Steve Martin performance and can overlook Novocaine's many flaws, it is definitely watchable. - MERK

I must say that about halfway through this movie I thought about bailing out on it. Steve Martin's character kept making SUCH bad decisions that it was painful to watch and you could easily see where it was going.

But I'm glad I stuck with it. Martin did a marvelous job of playing a terribly upstanding character who does things even he thinks himself incapable of, when he meets someone who finds his buttons and keeps on pushing them. *** SPOILER FOLLOWS *** You'd expect him to end up wishing he'd never met her, yet ultimately their meeting is the one thing that saves him. Sure some of the plot twists are a little implausible, but it's well-acted, told from an unusual point of view and a lot of fun. 7 out of 10.

With a friend mentioning to me that she was interested in watching a Comedy movie,I decided to pay a visit to a local DVD shop.Getting near the end of a shelf,I was happy to spot a Steve Martin title that I remember seeing lots of ads for when it came out,which led to me getting ready to pay the dentist a visit.

The plot:

Living a care-free life,dentist Frank Sangster finds himself being taken out of his comfort zone by new patient Susan. Despite having kind-hearted Jean Noble by his side,Sangster finds the danger Susan offers to be irresistible,which leads to them having sex in Sangster's dentist chair (talk about getting a filling!) Getting dressed,Susan pushes Sangster to give her a prescription to drugs that she is addicted to.

Turning up at his practise the next day,Sangster discovers that the buildings entire drug supply has been stolen.Quickly telling Nobel that he got rid of the drugs due to them running out of date,Sangster sets his sights on tracking down Susan.As Sangster enters Susan's brutal,drug hazed world,Nobel begins to pull the teeth of Sangster's hidden secrets.

View on the film:

Stuck with terrible, misleading promos,debuting co-writer/ (along with Paul Felopulos)director David Atkins (who has not made a movie since) leaves any sign of light Comedy behind,to deliver a murky Neo-Noir with a tough black Comedy edge.Drilling into a Neo-Noir atmosphere,Atkins & cinematographer Vilko Filac expose the rot setting in on Sangster's life with dazzling tracking shots,which along with revealing the chaotic state that his dental practise is falling into,also subtly shows Sangster to be in such a frantic mind that he is unable to spot the games getting played. Initially giving the title a light appearance, Atkins pulls up black Comedy roots which give Sangster's walk into the Neo-Noir world a glistering bitterness,as blood sprays over Sangster's pristine life.

Ripping Sangster's life wide open,the writers superbly pull any clean teeth in sight,as the whirlwind,dangerous femme fatale Susan drags Sangster out of his relaxing life with shady deals and lustful temptation.Ending the movie on a wonderfully weird bonkers note,the writers bite down on the viewers expectations with a raw intensity,thanks to delivering sharp, clever twists which reveal Sangster relationship with "perfect" Jean Noble to actually be more dangerous than the one he is having with Susan.

Hiding her English accent, Helena Bonham Carter (who also appears naked) gives an excellent performance as femme fatale Susan,with Carter's guitar twang giving Susan an oddly alluring quality,whilst Carter's stilted body language brilliantly capturing the burnt to a crisp life of Susan.Going up against Susan, Laura Dern gives a great performance as Jean Noble,with Dern joyfully ripping up Noble noble image,as Dern transforms Nobel into a hard-nose Neo-Noir dame.Stuck in the dentist chair,Steve Martin gives a terrific performance as Sangster, with Martin burning up Sangster's likability as he drills the Neo-Noir loner into him. Striking his exchanges with Carter with a chilling gasp of desperation,Martin carefully balances a dry dark wit,with a clutching at straws desperation,as Sangster starts to become numb.