When I first heard the premise of Novocaine, I assumed it was a high-concept action comedy in the tradition of Neveldine and Taylor’s Crank movies with Jason Statham. In those films, which I like, the plot’s entirely in service of the action gimmick. Crank’s an influence, but Novocaine does something very different: it starts with a human story and no action sequences to speak of for the first half hour before continually finding creative things to do with the central gimmick.
Directed by the duo of Dan Berk and Robert Olsen, Novocaine stars Jack Quaid as Nathan Caine, a 30-year-old bank employee who has a lifelong condition called congenital insensitivity to pain (CIP), which means he’s unable to feel pain. That might seem like a superpower, but for Nathan, it’s meant a lifetime in and out of hospitals, constant fear of accidents, and a lonely life. CIP is a real condition, although I’m not sure it manifests exactly the way it does in the film. Movies have used the concept before, most notably with Renard, the villain played by Robert Carlyle in the Brosnan-era Bond movie The World is Not Enough.
Smitten with co-worker Sherry (Amber Midthunder), Nathan must deal with a group of unusually violent criminals who rob the bank while dressed as Santa—the movie, weirdly, is set at Christmastime, despite a March release—and take Sherry hostage. It’s up to Nathan to step up, defeat the robbers, and rescue his love interest. The cast is rounded out by Betty Gabriel and Matt Walsh as a pair of cops and Jacob Battalon, the sidekick in the recent Spider-Man movies, playing the sidekick once again, except now he’s an adult instead of a teenager.
It’s ridiculous that this guy who’s never fired a gun or gotten in a fight in his life should suddenly go toe-to-toe with these sadistic criminals and always come out ahead. There’s also a touch of True Romance here, as a guy who’s a complete novice is suddenly savvy enough to emerge triumphant from the underworld, if motivated enough by the love of a woman.
But it works, mostly by continually coming up with good ideas that successfully milk the premise. For example, when Nathan fights a bad guy in a kitchen, he’s able to reach into scalding hot water while his opponent isn’t. Or another henchman, who has booby-trapped his house, Home Alone-style. Or a scene in which Nathan is tortured and has to pretend that the pain is bothering him. Or a device that I’ll only refer to as Chekhov’s Epi Pen.
Quaid, a skinny guy who doesn’t fit the profile of an action star, sells the premise. The son of Dennis Quaid and Meg Ryan, Quaid has mostly excelled in rom-com roles up to this point, but this could be his breakout. The movie is Nepo vs. Nepo, as the villain’s played by Ray Nicholson, the son of Jack. Jack Nicholson was never in a movie with either of Jack Quaid’s parents, although he did co-star in The Last Detail with his uncle Randy.
The film plays with ideas about disability and its meaning, before dropping all of that once the action begins. It’s set in San Diego and shows occasional San Diego landmarks but was shot mostly in Cape Town, South Africa. And I don’t believe, for a second, that the protagonist could have absorbed all of that punishment and not be dead.