Steve Martin has been waiting an age for a meaty role he can seek his teeth into - so he must be pretty glad to get a bite at all-American dentist Frank Sangster.

Here's the drill - Frank's got a lucrative, flashy practice and a modernist home as gleaming white as the molars he regularly buffs up on his patients.

He's also got a fiancee in the form of toothsome Valley Girl Jean (Dern)... but her girl-next-door attitude is the sort to set your teeth on edge.

So when alluring delinquent Susan (Bonham Carter) settles back in his dentist's chair it's no surprise that Frank is grinding away in a completely non-orthodontal manner when he gets half the chance.

Unfortunately, he may have bitten off more than he can chew as Susan has a penchant for painkillers, and cleans out his clinic's drugs locker when he's not looking. Even worse, Frank's ne'r-do-well brother Harlan (Elias Kotias) shows up and installs himself in Frank's home, much to squeaky-clean Jean's disgust.

And, to cap it all, Susan's got psychotic brother Duane (Scott Caan) in tow and the DEA snapping at his heels when an addict nearly kills himself with a bottle of drugs with Frank's name on it.

Writer/ director David Atkins' first feature can't make up its mind whether to be a romantic comedy, murder mystery or noir-ish laugh-a-thon. However, he has extracted the most gory dental scene since Laurence Olivier played merry hell with Dustin Hoffman's root canal in Marathon Man.

Martin puts in a workmanlike performance as the have-it-all dentist whose life spins about of control when he crosses paths with sexy Susan. However, slack direction means the plot's a bit hard to swallow and lurches around aimlessly when the noose should be being tightened on the luckless Frank.

For a movie with macabre touches and a heavy nod to classic film noir it's a strangely toothless affair.

Tim Evans