Dan Berk and Robert Olsen’s Novocaine is one of those happy surprises — a high-concept action film that arrives with modest expectations and exceeds them through sheer wit and committed performances. Jack Quaid, emerging fully from his Ethan Hunt shadow, is revelatory as Nathan, a mild-mannered bank employee with congenital insensitivity to pain who finds himself in the worst possible situation to have that particular superpower.
The Hook, Deployed Well
The script earns its violence. Every action set piece builds logically from Nathan’s condition: the grim comedy of watching him fight back without any awareness of how badly he’s been hurt, the horror when he catches a glimpse of his own injuries, the dark implications of what his condition has required him to learn about the human body just to stay alive day-to-day.
The TDW Verdict
Smarter than it looks. A crowd-pleasing action-comedy with more on its mind than the premise suggests.