The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent
Nic Cage is back, with a meta action/comedy that holds your interest, examines his fame, while also adroitly plumbing the depths of his back catalogue.
Nicolas Cage (Nicolas Cage), he of 1 million and 1 movies, is cash-strapped, hurting for his next gig amidst a looming debt with the hotel he lives in, a factitious relationship with his ex-wife and daughter, and a troubling sense that the industry is done with him. In walks Javi Gutierrez (Pedro Pascal), a Spanish billionaire who pays Nic $1 million to attend his birthday bash at his private compound. But this billionaire fan isn’t all he appears to be; Javi is a drug kingpin, who has kidnapped a President’s daughter, and Nic Cage is recruited by CIA operative Vivian (Tiffany Haddish) to help stop him. To do so, Cage must channel his most iconic and beloved on-screen characters to save himself and his family, but in the process he may just realise not all is as it seems, and his instincts for people and friendship (coupled with his shamanic acting style) might be telling him more than any CIA agent ever could.
Written and directed by Tom Gormican, The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent is the sort of meta-comedy, action piece that could go horribly, horribly awry. There is certainly an undertone of Zoolander 2 about the whole thing, like a whirlpool faintly bubbling away to the side of your ship, threatening to pull you down to the depths. Gormican manages to adeptly steer the ship away from such pitfalls, and guides us to what is ultimately a funny, rewarding, meta film that uses the self-awareness of its lead to great effect.
Cage is far and away the drawcard and star here. Sure, Pascal plays against type to craft a really empathetic superfan that you could actually see Cage becoming friends with, but it’s the man himself we’re here to see, and the movie knows it. There’s endless gags about his back catalogue, about his larger than life persona, and about his penchant for accepting seemingly every role that comes his way. He speaks to a de-aged version of himself (his Id or Ego) when he needs to get something off his chest, at one point going so far as to make out with that version of himself. There’s statues of him, memorabilia from his past, and oft-repeated lines of dialogue from his older films scattered throughout this one. It’s a full-on Cage assault on the senses.
The man himself weathers this flattery, critique and send-up with good natured humor, a deep introspective understanding of self, and a clear grasp on how he is perceived in the industry. It’s a beautiful performance in the film, that straddles the right balance of Nic Cage send-up, and Nic Cage as a real person. No one else could have done a role like this justice, and indeed no one else could have been self-deprecating enough to take on such a role. Cage comes out of it having reaffirmed his acting ability, his Hollywood megastar persona, and the impact of his presence in industry (not that he ever went anywhere).
