cottage on the countryside. Meanwhile, Jean's attempts to frame Frank fall apart. Unbeknownst to her, Harlan was playing with a medical video camera while he was shot and the recovered footage shows Jean firing the shotgun at the camera holder but fails to show it was Harlan who was shot. Therefore, the police wrongly assume that Jean shot Frank and arrest her. Cast Steve Martin as Dr. Frank Sangster Helena Bonham Carter as Susan Ivey Laura Dern as Jean Noble Elias Koteas as Harlan Sangster Scott Caan as Duane Ivey Lynne Thigpen as Pat JoBe Cerny as Pharmacist Wayne Ponze Preston Maybank as Melvin Gelding, DEA Agent Kevin Bacon as Lance Phelps Keith David as Detective Lunt Len Bajenski as Trooper Jarvis Production Screenwriter David Atkins wrote the screenplay while working in the dental practices of his father and brothers. "I was looking for an everyman kind of character, and I just thought a dentist is a perfect everyman. I find dentists to be very sympathetic, actually. They know that people don't jump up and down with excitement when they have to go see a dentist, yet they welcome people into their offices, always with a smile. Then they lay them down in their chairs and take away the pain," said Atkins. The film was shot in Chicago over 32 days. Reception Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times awarded the film three out four stars and appreciated the film's screwball and film noir elements, declaring its "loopholes" forgivable for a comedy. The Los Angeles Times review had high praise for Martin's portrayal and director Atkins' work, but found the appearance by Kevin Bacon "ludicrous" and the film's tension reduced by the "virtually slapstick run from the cops". In her review for Salon, Stephanie Zacharek found the film "so aggressively stylish that it comes off more like a stunt" with a "plodding" plot. She added though Laura Dern's performance made the film "clack along efficiently when she's onscreen," by the time of the film's "feebly shocking conclusion, we're left feeling heavily sedated, and not in the good way." On the Rotten Tomatoes review aggregator, the film has a 38% "rotten" score, with the critical consensus being, "The quirky Novocaine flirts with both dark comedy and noir suspense, but the result is a jarring mix of tones which never quite mesh." References External links 2001 films Artisan Entertainment films American black comedy