About half way through The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent Nicolas Cage playing “Nick Cage” laments about how all movies these days are either Star Wars or Marvel films, and there is nothing made for adults anymore unless they have blockbuster tendencies. It’s this self-aware humor that makes Massive Talent soar but it’s the need to make it into an action film that causes it to not fly as high as it could.
Billed as “The Nick Cage” movie in marketing, this is a film that knows it has a built in audience. The countless cinephiles who are dedicated to the actor’s puzzling body of work, those who pondering the enigma of the man, and people who just think about the bee scene from Wicker Man. Inside of the film is a real underdog story, of an actor who’s spent the last decade starring in less than remarkable films, finally getting a chance to be a star again.
Cage himself is more than game to make fun of himself and play a largely fictionalized version of the once movie star. He’s mentioned in interviews that he gives it is his all with every performance and did most of his VOD work to pay off debts. So the Cage here is like a free man, able to play himself with a straight face. You can tell writers Tom Gormican and Kevin Etten love Nicolas Cage. This film isn’t making fun of him or kicking him while he is down. It plays on two levels, the straight forward homage and satire of Cage, while the meta subtext is Cage returning back to his real life movie star status just like the fictionalized version.
Massive Talent tries to be the character drive, adult oriented, film it claims are gone but like Tiffany Haddish said, “it’s not putting butts in seats.” Director Tom Gormican almost feels forced to include the action sequences and the jokes that come along with it. He knows Cage himself is not enough of a hook to drive people to the theater, Cage playing himself while in a Tropic Thunder-esque situation, that’s a hook. While there is nothing inherently wrong with having action scenes, here it undermines the main theme of the film and provides a lackluster third-act and climax.
That being said I really did enjoy this film. Cage is terrific as himself, but Pedro Pascal steals the show as Javi, a cinephile who might also be a ruthless drug lord. The film works best when the two of them are together, becoming a buddy comedy that hits all the right notes. It is in these scenes where we do get glimpses of a character study. A washed up actor who is looking to hang up the towel but sees the impact of his work on others. Pascal and Cage make for a fine pairing in an attempt to delve into the psychology of the fictionalized Cage.
Of course the film can’t just be that and Nick Cage ends up being recruited by a CIA operative (Tiffany Haddish) who wants Nick to spy on Javi. What follows is scenes of slapstick, farce and countless homages to Cage’s work. But as I mentioned it’s all done with love and respect for Cage (he’s also a producer on the film so he must have found it endearing too.) This is a film that wants to make Cage a star again, and if this film proves anything, maybe we are ready to embrace him again.
4 out of 5.
The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent
Directed by Tom Gormican
Written by Tom Gormican and Kevin Etten
Starring Nicolas Cage, Pedro Pascal, Tiffany Haddish
In Theaters April 22nd