British Actress Blog

Novocaine (2001)

Score: 6/10

Director: Tom Hooper

Stars: Helena Bonham Carter, Steve Martin, Laura Dern, Lynne Thigpen, Kevin Bacon.

The Honorable Mention Series:

Novocaine

Helena Bonham Carter

Synopsis: A dentist finds himself the suspect of a murder after a patient seduces him and steals all of the drugs from his dental office.

Review: A dentist named Frank Sangster ( Steve Martin ) signed a deal with a new corporation but doesn’t read the fine print. One day a young woman named Susan ( Helena Bonham Carter ) comes into his office for a checkup. She tries to get him to join her in a drug scam but he only agrees to half the deal. This is the beginning of the end for him.

Susan

Helena Bonham Carter

Helena Bonham Carter plays basically two versions of her character in this film. The first character is a highly intelligent, very calm, and a very charming woman while the other character is Marla from Fight Club (1999). I love it! Steve Martin does well in this film. He does an alright job but there is not much else to say about him here. I thought that his role would be more comedic, but it wasn’t. I have seen Laura Dern in a couple of films and she does not have very good range at all in her acting skills. I think she did a competent job in the film Star Wars The Last Jedi (2018), a role the will live in infamy in the minds of basement dwellers everywhere. I was disappointed in her character in the film 99 Homes (2014) with Michael Shannon and Andrew Garfield. It was not her performance but her character seemed like she needed to be on medication because she had a very unrealistic view on life and the economy. Her role in Jurassic Park (1993) was just OK but lacked finesse and charm.

A Deceiver

Helena Bonham Carter

The film focuses on the concept of deception. Literally nothing is what it seems in this film. It was a stroke of genius by the creators of this film to make this movie lean towards comedy more than a serious film. As a serious film this movie would not have worked. Its too unrealistic for these kind of crimes to happen and not have investigators not find out the truth. Making this more of a funny movie, with dry humor, and irony was the better choice. The deception in the film has to do with the fact that our main protagonist just wants to do his job and not go into any important details. This causes him to be the target of a financial scam. He also gives into his very cave man like impulses which makes the audience not like him very much at all. Is this fool supposed to be the good guy? I think not.

Interesting

Film

The cinematography is better than average. The lighting, set dressing, backgrounds, and wardrobe are all very high quality and look very good. This is not a family movie, so don’t do it. This film its self has many plot twists, which keeps the movie interesting. The movie knows how to bring characters into the story and get them to leave the story when necessary. Each scene seems to be jam packed with information even when you don’t realize it. This movie is not the best film Helena Bonham Carter has played in. The Theory of Flight (1998) and Fight Club (1999) are better but this movie is decent enough. Watch this if you’re bored.

More Films from Helena Bonham Carter:

Cinderella (2015)

The King’s Speech (2010)

Suffragette (2015)

The Young and Prodigious T.S. Spivet (2013)

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (2009)

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 (2010)

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 (2011)

Recent Posts