Droga da Sedução

To start with, any movie in which Helena Bonham Carter gets naked is a good thing.

This is a weird weird movie, but good pacing and casting saves it. A more disciplined director could have turned it into a cult classic.

Steve Martin is convincing in a challenging part. He is a fine actor.He brings just enough comedy so the movie doesn't descend into the land that light forgot. This edge gives the film strange believability.

Laura Dern is also exquisite walking a fine line to achieve a balance between farce and drama. Her character, blondness and 'hard body' look contrasted effectively with HBC's petite, auburn wickedness.

At the end, I wanted to watch it again to appreciate the fine points I missed the first time through.

I would describe it as a darker " The Whole Nine Yards".

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

OK, so I have to give this movie points for originality. How many films involve a dentist protagonist? I watched the featurette on the DVD and director David Atkins explained that he wanted to throw a curve ball at the audience by having Steve Martin play the main character in a dark comedy--since audiences are probably expecting something much broader. I didn't get any laughs out of this film; just some mild chuckles. But whether it's a dark comedy or a mystery-thriller, it doesn't quite gel. And ultimately, the film left a bad taste in my mouth--no pun intended. It's watchable, and at times quite intriguing, but it's definitely not a memorable film that I would watch on repeat viewings.

The cast is spirited. Steve Martin never ceases to please, whether he's playing a broad comic role or the straight man. Here, he plays more of the latter. But I wasn't surprised he was able to pull it off. If anybody has seen Lawrence Kasdan's "Grand Canyon," you know Steve is a versatile actor who can easily pull off a serious role. This isn't his first time playing the straight man. Laura Dern is amusing as Steve's neurotic, obsessive-compulsive, karate-kicking wife. Helena Bonham Carter is sassy and sexy, a totally convincing femme fetale. Elias Koteas has some nice moments as Steve's black-sheep brother. And last but not least, Kevin Bacon has an amusing unbilled cameo as an actor researching murder cases for his upcoming movie.

Danny Elfman's opening theme is wonderfully haunting. There are certain elements of "Novocaine" that I liked, it does have its moments (the twist ending totally caught me by surprise!!), but it just doesn't come together.

My score: 6 (out of 10)

Most stars have made a film they regret. I fear this will be the one for Steve Martin, Laura Dern & Helena Bonham Carter. Martin stars as a popular dentist, engaged to his office manager (Dern). One evening when he's alone in the office a mysterious young woman (Carter) comes in and convinces him to give her a prescription for pain killers, promising to come back for treatment the next morning. This one mistake of his sets off a series of intrigues and doublecrosses with a satisfying ending. So why am I so disappointed in the movie? For one thing, the story has holes that no amount of dental work can fill. And the movie is filled with gratuitously painful-to-watch scenes of dental work... starting right from the beginning. This is definitely not a movie to eat popcorn by and, in spite of the satisfying ending, everyone at my screening left the theater feeling sickened and extremely disappointed in Steve Martin.

Let's get something clear real quick - this is NOT a comedy. Don't try to watch it as a comedy, don't try to laugh at things that are not supposed to be funny, and don't complain if you didn't laugh a lot.

Now, I like to see an actor take a chance and do something out of his/her comfort zone. I like to see an actor expand his/her range, explore other genres, flex their actual acting muscles once in a while. And, I like to see an actor want to do a script that might not score them points either in the box office or with critics, so long as they feel they can bring something to a role. (Tom Hanks is the best example of this; Michael Keaton is close behind, and even Bruce Willis falls into this category, in my humble opinion).

That said, this film is fairly good. A pretty tame dentist is drawn into a downward-spiralling vortex of sex, drugs and murder. He is clearly over his head as his world crumbles down around him, and he doesn't suddenly become an action hero at all.

This movie has some classic femme fatale elements but does not pursue that vehicle to the common extreme. However, it also captures some film noir ideas - the first-person narrative, the slippery-slope downwards, the protagonist who just can't stop himself from falling under the spell of the vamp who's bad news from the word "go"...

It's not Double Indemnity or Sunset Blvd, but hey, for what it is, it was somewhat engaging.