Nathan Caine can't feel pain. Well, not physically, like you and me. Though he does get his heart and tongue all tied up in knots when, at 30 years old, he finally meets the girl of his dreams.
Nathan Caine (Jack Quaid) is the assistant manager for a small savings and loan bank in San Diego. He spends his free time playing video wargames online with his buddy, Roscoe (Jacob Batalon), a man he's never met IRL, and mooning over Sherry (Amber Midthunder), a fairly new teller at the bank. Sherry has only been there a few months, and Nathan is tongue-tied every time she's in his general orbit. Caine's a kind man, which we see when he helps out a small businessman, currently in default of his loan from the bank, by giving him a few extra weeks to come up with the loan payment so he doesn't have his business foreclosed on.
Every day seems to be the same as every other day at the bank. Until one day when Sherry starts to chat Nathan up, inviting him to take lunch with her, sharing her pie. No, that's not a euphemism. There's real cherry pie involved. The two meet later on that evening, make it back to his place and after they exchange some hopes, some life stories, some secrets, Sherry seduces Nathan, who has zero objections.
The next morning, Nathan is walking on air. He can't stop smiling about his change in fortune. He smiles at Sherry through the window of his office. She smiles back. And then, all of a sudden, a trio of bankrobbers each dressed in full Santa Claus costumes, burst into the bank, shooting and demanding the code to the bank vault.
Now, as I mentioned, the special thing about Nathan is that he can't feel pain. He's got a rare genetic disorder called CIP, which is congenital insensitivity to pain. People with this disorder may not know when they have serious injuries like burns, infections or fractures. Nathan is afraid to eat solid food because he 'may bite off his own tongue and won't know it'. He doesn't even know when he has to pee because he can't feel that his bladder is full. He has to set the alarm on his watch to let him know when to take a potty break. Sherry learned this secret about Nathan over the pie they shared on their first date. In fact, Novocaine is his childhood nickname. 'Sort-of badass', according to Sherry. We'll soon find out exactly how bad-ass Nathan is.
Which brings us back to the bank robbery. Nathan watches his co-workers get shot and mauled. He tries to protect them, and especially Sherry, but he is severely kicked and pummelled by the robbers, eventually giving up the bank code to protect Sherry. With the cops en route, the robbers quickly push their stolen loot into their Santa sacks and run out of the bank with Sherry in tow as their hostage, shooting up the area and blasting away any officers outside their vehicles. Nathan runs out of the bank in pursuit and steals an abandoned cop car to follow the escaping robbers.
His theft of the patrol car, combined with the fact that he gave the vault code to the robbers, immediately puts Nathan on the detective's radar as a possible accomplice.
We'll soon find out that, when it comes to rejuvenating after getting stabbed, slashed, shot, hung and set on fire, Caine is much like Jason Voorhees, Michael Myers and Jigsaw. But unlike those serial killers, Nathan Caine is the 'good guy' in Novocaine.
There are a whole bunch of twists and U-turns in this extremely bloody film, with nauseating scenes that are specifically designed to make you cringe. Thankfully the writer, Lars Jacobson, has previoius experience injecting humor in his horror, as seen in his Day of the Dead: Bloodline.
Similar to "The Last Stop in Yuma County", Novocaine is also about a bank robbery gone extremely wrong, with similar buckets of blood and gore. But watching Nathan Caine purposely injure himself trying to stop the bad guys from stealing away the love of his life is quirkily entertaining.
Lisa Blanck is the Associate Editor / Movie Reviewer for In Focus-Magazine.com and is a member of the Critics Association of Central Florida. Her background includes 30+ years of digital editing for NBC and CBS News affiliates. She also edits national promotional spots for Matter Of Fact, the #1 nationally syndicated news & information program. For 30+ years she has covered the Florida Film Festival & the World Peace Film Festival, and has additional award-winning experience in advertising, marketing, promotions and live special events with MTV Networks.
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