Novocaine
Nathan cannot feel pain, which is a real setback when he experiences heartache for the first time…
Nothing Hurts Like Love: Jack Quaid
Image courtesy of Paramount Pictures.
‘Novocaine’ is the not entirely unfitting childhood nickname for Nathan Caine. Now 30-years-old, Nathan has lived his whole life with the prospect of an early death due to a rare autosomal recessive disorder of the nervous system. Because he is unable to feel pain, he is subject to a whole range of drawbacks, not least the inability to eat solid food in case he bites his tongue off. Consequently, he has led a life of self-enforced solitude in which his only real companion is an avatar he has befriended online. He has never been able to shake off his feeling of ‘being different’, about the only feeling he has to call his own. Then, one day, Sherry (Amber Midthunder), a new employee at the bank where he works, invites him on a lunch date and to Nathan’s surprise he accepts. One thing leads to another and for the first time in Nathan’s life he finds himself connected to his feelings… Then their bank is broken into by a trio of brutal trigger-happy hoodlums…
The Dennis Quaid lookalike Jack Quaid (son of Meg Ryan) has a roguish smile that frequently recalls a young Jack Nicholson. It is surreal, then, that the actor has been cast here opposite Ray Nicholson, the son of Jack (who plays the most ruthless of the bank robbers). Not that either connection should detract from the entertainment value of this audacious, accomplished black comedy. The idea of a mild-mannered bank employee with the inability to feel pain is a great starting point for an action-comedy. That the directors Dan Berk and Robert Olsen have so successfully pulled off the balancing act of high concept with humour, suspense, action and engaging characters is close to a miracle.
From the opening strains of REM’s ‘Everybody Hurts’, the film feels comfortable in its own skin, set against the unfamiliar backdrop of San Diego (albeit much of it shot in Cape Town). The action sequences are also extremely well-choreographed, extracting the most out of the squirm factor as poor old Nate is bashed around like a rag doll, taking his punishment with gleeful nonchalance. Jack Quaid is also a most likeable antihero, mixing bashful charm with a James Stewart righteousness, while incessantly apologising for hurting those trying to kill him. It’s refreshing, too, to encounter such a mix of genres (romcom, crime thriller, farce, body horror) that so perfectly gel together, with room for unexpected narrative U-turns and some scalpel-sharp dialogue. Lars Jacobson’s imaginative, cunningly plotted screenplay is the thing, but it’s our blessing that it has been so beautifully realised by Berk and Olsen.
JAMES CAMERON-WILSON
Cast: Jack Quaid, Amber Midthunder, Ray Nicholson, Betty Gabriel, Matt Walsh, Lou Beatty Jr, Evan Hengst, Craig Jackson, Jacob Batalon, Garth Collins, Conrad Kemp.
Dir Dan Berk and Robert Olsen, Pro Joby Harold, Tory Tunnell, Drew Simon, Julian Rosenberg and Matt Schwartz, Screenplay Lars Jacobson, Ph Jacques Jouffret, Pro Des Kara Lindstrom, Ed Christian Wagner, Music Lorne Balfe and Andrew Kawczynski, Sound Jean-François Sauvé, Dialect coach Stephen Jennings.
Infrared Pictures/Safehouse Pictures/Circle of Confusion/Domain Entertainment-Paramount Pictures.
109 mins. USA. 2025. US Rel: 14 March 2025. UK Rel: 28 March 2025. Cert. 15.
