I have a friend who has pointed out that, no matter what movie you see Nicolas Cage in, you always think of him as “Nicolas Cage,” no matter what the character’s name is. It doesn’t really matter that Cage gives a unique performance in every film, that he works hard, that he has never spoken ill of anything he’s appeared in as he is a man who, creatively at least, has no regrets. He’s just such an odd actor that, yeah, just referring to something as a Nicolas Cage movie might be enough to get people to check it out.
I’m sure I’ve used that anecdote before, but it looks like the ultimate Nicolas Cage movie just came out, namely The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent where Cage plays himself. Sort of.
Nicolas Cage is down on his luck in Hollywood. He loves to work, but his career doesn’t seem to be going anywhere. He’s estranged from his ex-wife Olivia (Sharon Horgan) and especially his teenage daughter Addy (Lily Sheen). The best job his agent (Neil Patrick Harris) can get him is to appear at the birthday party for a wealthy Spaniard named Javi (Pedro Pascal). Javi is, apparently, Cage’s biggest fan; he’d even sent along a screenplay for the actor’s consideration. Cage really needs the money, so he agrees to go. He’s been rejected for too many parts of late, and he’s seeing images of his younger self, where the younger Cage is high on success and being a movie star.
However, there is a catch: Javi may be the head of a crime cartel that recently kidnapped an anti-corruption politician’s daughter. Two CIA agents monitoring the situation are trying to find the girl when they see Cage show up for the party. While Martin (Ike Barinholtz) dismisses Cage, his partner Vivian (Tiffany Haddish) sees potential and recruits Cage to spy on Javi and try to learn the missing girl’s location. Cage has some apprehensions. Javi seems more harmless than anything else, and he’s a huge fan to boot. Can Cage figure out what’s going on and save the day like something out of one of his movies?
Credit where it’s due: Nic Cage doesn’t come off looking too good at the start of this movie, and he agreed to do it anyway. The fictional Cage starts off as a man mostly interested in his acting career and maybe being the center of attention. He talks obsessively about acting and different movies that he personally likes while ignoring whatever it is his daughter prefers. He comes across as a sad sack loser, the kind of guy whose bad decisions and behavior have left him in a state where, yeah, he will take a job for a rich man’s birthday party because it is literally the only thing he has. However, the movie is also a celebration of all things Nic Cage. Sure, it could be just a lot of discussion for Cage’s popular action movies, and indeed, the movie opens with a scene from Con Air, but the movie actually takes time to discuss or mention many movies from his career, even the likes of Captain Corelli’s Mandolin and Guarding Tess. He’s matched by Pascal as a soft-spoken man just in awe of the fact his cinematic idol is spending time with him as the two bond over their mutual love of movies, and not just Cage’s.
Seriously, this movie takes time to show some respect to Paddington 2.
In fact, arguably Unbearable Weight, while acting as a tribute to Cage’s career in general, could just as easily be a tribute to the power of film in general as Cage’s world starts to behave more and more like something out of one of his own movies. And at the same time, the movie is self-aware enough to point out how ridiculous everything happening around Cage, Javi, and the rest actually is. It’s a self-aware ridiculous movie starring an actor who is very much in on the joke, and it looks like everyone involved was enjoying every second of it. I mean, I know I did.
Grade: A
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