Humility might just be the greatest lost art in Hollywood. Even in our age of more down to earth, “average” celebrities, it can be hard to distinguish genuine enthusiasm or personality for something manufactured for maximum appeal. Yes, it seems like the age of true “movie stars” may be slowly dying, but those that remain still encapsulate that idea wholeheartedly. And there might not be a better example than Nicolas Cage (“National Treasure,” “Leaving Las Vegas”).
The actor has made a career out of his wild personality and film roles. It’s not every day you see an actor decide to tackle roles like his in “Mandy,” “Prisoners of the Ghostland,” “Willy’s Wonderland,” and “Pig” all in quick succession, let alone also peppering in voice roles for films like “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse,” “Teen Titans Go! To the Movies” and “The Croods: A New Age” and hosting documentaries like “History of Swear Words.” His career is as enigmatic as it’s ever been, and writer/director Tom Gormican (“That Awkward Moment,” “Ghosted”) and co-writer Kevin Etten (“Workaholics,” “Desperate Housewives”) have sought to both take advantage of that resurgence and celebrate Cage’s career as a whole with the bizarre and borderline cartoonish “The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent.”
Playing a fictionalized version of himself, the film stars Nicolas Cage who finds himself accepting an offer to visit a wealthy playboy’s birthday party on his own personal island. Once he arrives, insanity ensues from various angles, with Cage forced to reconcile his familial struggles and his personal views of himself in order to make it out.
Cage is excellent, delivering a performance that easily switches between comedic and dramatic when the script calls for it, and it's arguably one of his finest performances yet. He, of course, brings the crazy, but the elevated nature of the material allows him to get weirder than he might otherwise get, even when the material is at its most dramatic. He also plays brilliantly off of Pedro Pascal (“Narcos,” “The Mandalorian”), who co-stars as the wealthy playboy Javi Gutierrez.
Their chemistry is phenomenal, and the film is at its best when it's just the two of them going on wacky misadventures, strengthening their bromantic bond and further exploring the unexpected budding friendship between these two deeply weird men. Even when they’re apart, Pascal nails the script’s weird tone, and he’s consistently the best and funniest part of the film, at times even upstaging the magnanimous madness of Cage.
The rest of the cast is fine, clearly overshadowed by the two central performances and no one seems to even be trying to match them. Gormican and his cast seem well aware that this movie is the “Nick Cage and Pedro Pascal show” and they’re more than happy to let them be the centerpiece. Tiffany Haddish (“Girl’s Trip,” “Tuca and Bertie”) is fine, far more subdued than normal, and she’s virtually wasted by the time the film ends. The same goes for Sharon Horgan (“Together,” “Disenchantment”) as Nick’s ex-wife Olivia, who still manages to make the most of her limited screen time. Ike Barinholtz (“The Oath,” “Blockers”) is a borderline cameo, simply vanishing from the film for no explained reason; at least Neil Patrick Harris’s (“How I Met Your Mother,” “Gone Girl”) role is clearly a cameo, but he makes the most of his limited time.
It’s hard to look at this film as anything other than weird or ambitious. Even for as recognizable of an actor as Cage is, the concept of an actor playing themselves in a satirical way isn’t always a guarantee. For the majority of the movie’s runtime, it all gels together hilariously. There are bits of existentialism, of both broad and specific Hollywood satire, and of generally goofball bromance behavior. All of these competing types of films are funny and fine enough, but it is an extremely hyperactive movie that’s almost too eager to please at times. Also, for as funny as each of these different types of humor are, it does feel like the film can’t decide what type of movie it wants to be, leading to the aforementioned hyperactive attitude.
By the time the film hits its third act, it does settle into one specific groove, but that's oddly when it becomes the least interesting. Instead of going for any crazy motifs, it all becomes a fairly generic action film by the last twenty-five minutes. This would be fine if not for the relatively small budget that’s forced to the center stage in the choppy action sequences. You can smell the cheapness in these moments. The same extends to the music by Mark Isham (“A River Runs Through It,” “Crash”) and cinematography from Nigel Bluck (“The Peanut Butter Falcon,” “True Detective”). In the first two thirds of the film, it's all big strings and creatively framed shots, setting up the film’s own identity. But by the time things turn more generic in the plot, the same goes for the film’s musical and visual identity.
If a movie’s biggest flaw is that it’s too eager to please, it's hard to fault it. There are plenty of worse issues to have. However, as fun as it is to watch Cage and Pascal’s bromance and to watch Cage parody himself, the film’s hyperactive nature and overly generic third act harm the overall feature. It’s still a fun and silly adventure, and by far one of the more original concepts in recent years. Yet, it doesn’t quite all fit together flawlessly, resulting in a fun, if fleeting, adventure that revels in its silliness and not much else. 3.5/5
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