What’s It About
When the girl of his dreams is kidnapped, a man incapable of feeling physical pain turns his rare condition into an unexpected advantage in the fight to rescue her.
MOVIESinMO REVIEW
“Novocaine” delivers exactly what its title promises – a numbing good time that keeps you hooked from start to finish. This fresh action comedy introduces us to Nathan “Nate” Caine, a shy bank worker with an unusual condition that prevents him from feeling pain. The story begins with Nate living a carefully controlled life. Born with CIPA (Congenital Insensitivity to Pain with Anhidrosis), he can’t feel physical pain or temperature changes. His parents raised him with extreme caution – no solid foods (to avoid biting his tongue), baby-proofed everything, and limited outdoor activities. Now an adult working at a San Diego bank, Nate struggles socially and lives by strict rules to stay safe. His routine life takes a wild turn when he meets Sherry, who quickly captures his heart. When bank robbers kidnap her during a violent heist, Nate must transform his lifelong “curse” into his greatest strength. His pain-free condition suddenly becomes the perfect weapon for a rescue mission no normal person could survive. What makes “Novocaine” stand out is how it plays against typical action hero tropes. Nate isn’t some fighting expert or clandestine agent – he’s just a regular guy who has this weird medical thing. The awkward bank employee fares amusingly in all sorts of dangerous situations that typically lend themselves to even the most hardened soul crying out in pain; Jack Quaid is fabulous as Nate, striking just the right balance between innocence and growing resolve. His expressive, pint-size visage tells it all—stunned shock at witnessing hellacious damage inflicted on his body that he feels not at all; or comically feigning suffering when it’s necessary to dupe the baddies. Quaid somehow makes Nate lovable and believable in an utterly nutty setting. Where ‘Novocaine’ goes to town is in the action sequences-the kitchen fight is surprisingly brilliant when Nate perceives that he can dip into boiling oil or singe his hand on a frying pan, whilst his opponent can’t. Directors Dan Berk and Robert Olsen have cleverly used Nate’s condition as a means to subvert familiar scenes from action films and invert them into unexpected shocks or hilarity. Accompanying Nate in his journey is Roscoe, an online videogame buddy played by Jacob Batalon. Though they never physically met before the actions in the film, Roscoe provides a great comic foil as well. Their bond contributes a buddy aspect that complements the story instead of overshadowing it. The villain, played by Ray Nicholson, strikes the right balance of being threatening enough to create genuine stakes while fitting into the movie’s sometimes cartoonish tone. His cruel methods make him easy to root against, especially when Nate must fake reactions during a torture scene that becomes unexpectedly hilarious. “Novocaine” doesn’t hold back on gore – there’s plenty of blood and some truly wince-inducing moments when Nate suffers injuries that would incapacitate anyone else. One scene shows him casually tattooing information onto his palm, while another features a dagger going straight through his hand with Nate barely noticing. These instances might squirm in the viewers, but they are treated with enough humor to remain entertaining and not disturbing certainly. The pacing of the movie surely briskly covers two hours in length, barring a stretch too far during the final acts with more than enough climactic sequences that lacked steamlining to some extent. However, the humor prevailed, combined with creative action, to keep the audience’s attention-to-the-end.” Aside from the blood and laughter, “Novocaine” surprisingly has heart. The underlying premise is that of a sheltered man finding courage and finding meaning in life with the ebb and tide of the corpses that surround him. The feeling of movement gives poignancy to the violent stunts and bloody fights by depicting Nate’s evolution from a man who sidesteps danger to one who will embrace it to the extreme (even if he cannot feel it). The romance between Nate and Amber Midthunder’s character, Sherry, earns its keep even with limited screen time. Their chemistry in selling Nate going to such extreme lengths for someone he is just starting to know is what really sells it. “Novocaine” avoids turning Sherry into a clichéd damsel in distress while still allowing her character enough room to step outside the realm of mere plot device. Also compelling is the connection Nate has with an aging hardware store owner, who is having a bit of business difficulty in these days. This subplot serves to illustrate Nate’s character and inform us of the reality that he was a compassionate and useful individual even prior to being embraced as a hero. Ultimately, “Novocaine” works because it goes all in on its surreal and outrageous premise and refuses to take itself too seriously. Lars Jacobson’s script strikes just the right balance, facilitating a fusion of action-thriller and comedy that never allows either to dominate the other. The directors’ background in horror films rewards them with just the right sensibilities to script these bloody sequences to be shocking and funny at the same time. “Novocaine” has concluded, in the end, as much more than this nifty gimmick movie. It is a wild ride full of entertainment that positions Jack Quaid as an unlikely action star with a refreshing deviation from the typical hard-men genre. Heart, humor, and creative violence in one movie makes for an experience that is anything but numb, really, in contrast to its title.
OUR RATING – A PAINLESS 7