Novocaine (film)
| Novocaine | |
|---|---|
Theatrical release poster
|
|
| Directed by | David Atkins |
| Produced by | Paul Mones Daniel M. Rosenberg |
| Screenplay by | David Atkins |
| Story by | David Atkins Paul Felopulos |
| Starring |
Steve Martin Helena Bonham Carter Laura Dern |
| Music by | Steve Bartek |
| Cinematography | Vilko Filac |
| Edited by | Melody London |
| Distributed by | Artisan Entertainment |
|
Release date
|
|
|
Running time
|
95 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $6 million |
| Box office | $2,036,682 |
Novocaine is a 2001 American black comedy thriller film written and directed by David Atkins and starring Steve Martin, Helena Bonham Carter, Laura Dern, Lynne Thigpen and Elias Koteas. It was shot in the Chicago, Illinois area, during a limited 32-day schedule. The film received extra publicity during production and as its release approached because of an off-the-screen romance between Martin and Bonham Carter. It had lukewarm reviews and low box-office receipts.
Generally, the film is a dark and quirky "tragicomedy". The "everyman" protagonist, Dr. Frank Sangster (Steve Martin), is a dentist with a fairly pleasant but rather innocuous, ordinary and uneventful life. But all of this gets derailed, and Frank's life descends into an increasingly complex mess, from the minute a beautiful and seductive new patient named Susan Ivey (Helena Bonham Carter) comes to him, seeking a root canal and a little pain relief...
On Susan's initial office visit, Frank schedules her for a root canal the very next day, and offers her some Ibuprofen to address her pain in the meanwhile. Claiming that she is allergic to the offered medication, Susan requests a prescription for the addictive pain-killer Demerol. Frank provides the prescription, but only for five tablets. However, Susan changes the dosage from five tablets to fifty when she collects the medication from her pharmacist.
Susan arrives for her appointment twelve hours late, having mistaken the time. She seduces Frank, talking him into getting drunk and having sex with her. During the night, Susan steals all of Frank's narcotics. The next day, there is a DEA (Drug Enforcement Administration) agent at Frank's office demanding to see the dentist's narcotics supply, because an 18-year-old has driven a car off a cliff under the influence of cocaine hydrochloride from a bottle registered to the dentist. Knowing that Susan has stolen his entire drug supply, Frank puts the agent off, saying he dispensed it all to patients. The agent leaves with the promise that if Frank fails to produce the empty containers in two days, the DEA will place him under arrest.
...
Wikipedia