‘Novocaine No Pain’: Jack Quaid Shines As Painless Action Hero

Despite its standard action movie setup of ‘regular guy goes to save a girl’, Dan Berk and Robert Olsen’s Novocaine (or Novocaine No Pain in Australia, for some reason) manages to carve out its own identity through its fun idea to have its protagonist quite literally never feel pain. There’s little about the film that truly surprises, but it’s a delightful vehicle to showcase Jack Quaid’s unique charms while inflicting creatively horrible injuries on him.

From stubbing your toe to burning a finger with hot water, much of our lives are built around avoiding the evolutionary sensation of pain. Yet Nathan Caine (Jack Quaid), the main character of Dan Berk and Robert Olsen’s Novocaine, was diagnosed at a young age with congenital insensitivity to pain with anhidrosis (CIPA), meaning he’s unable to feel any pain at all.

Though this disability has made Nathan a highly introverted middle manager who spends his life attempting to avoid injury, it soon proves useful after the bank he works at is robbed and his recent love interest Sherry (Amber Midthunder) is abducted by the thieves, leading Nathan on a path of blood and broken bones, but no pain.

The very premise of Novocaine subverts general understanding of the action movie. Where you might watch something like John Wick and wonder about how “realistic” it is that they endure so much pain, this immunity to suffering is woven into the action of Novocaine. The lack of pain is partly what makes so many of Nathan’s wounds uniquely cringe-worthy: just because he can’t feel it, it doesn’t mean the viewer is any less likely to imagine what it would feel like.

Novocaine takes full advantage of its premise

What makes the action of the film so unique, though, is that Nathan is able to weaponise his lack of pain response against his foes through actions no other action movie hero could, like picking up a sizzling pan, reaching into a fryer or smashing glass into his hand to brutal effect. A particularly entertaining scene comes when Nathan is being tortured and has to act like he’s in pain, when in reality he’s just buying time.

Quaid is an excellent pick to play Nathan, further showcasing his abilities as an actor and handling both the comedic and violent parts of the film with finesse. He and co-star Amber Midthunder have excellent chemistry that makes the first act of the film feel more like a romcom than an action movie, setting up the stakes for what follows in a slightly heavy-handed but nonetheless effective manner.

Directors Berk and Olsen manage to mostly balance the tone of Lars Jacobson’s script, revelling in both the comedy and carnage inherent to the premise. Most importantly, the action scenes are clearly shot while still regularly managing to feel frantic, and are well worth the largely serviceable scenes that interlope between each setpiece.

Even if Novocaine is a rather conventional action exercise on paper, the film has enough uniquely creative qualities that make it well worth the watch. Paired with the ever-affable Jack Quaid and a willingness to take full advantage of its premise, it’s rather appropriate that Novocaine is a totally painless watch.

★★★½

Novocaine No Pain is in cinemas now.