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Nicolas Cage’s Self-Parody is a Fun, Smartly Restrained Movie of Friendship


It’s been said before that Nicolas Cage is a force of nature; a figure unlike anyone else in Hollywood who’s become a pop culture phenomenon of an entirely unique sort in an entirely unique way. And yet the man himself is by most accounts gracious, and takes in stride the sometimes unfair notoriety of his persona. Because one can never fully tell how sincere or ironic a particular image of Cage is. And yes, he’s made bad movies and delivered questionable performances, but he’s also one of those rare actors willing to make big choices with his craft. He’s often cited German Expressionism as a particular influence, and it can be seen in so many of his most famous moments. But last year, he starred in Pig, a far quieter and less wild movie than he typically works in, and it produced one of the best performances of his career. In a way it proved he can do whatever he wants, and he doesn’t much care about that public image anymore.
Which is why it was surprising that he chose to star in The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent, a movie that is entirely built around the icon of Nicolas Cage, even as it thankfully steers clear of a lot of the meme-ified dreck. Cage plays a fictionalized version of himself as a washed-up self-absorbed actor who gets embroiled in an espionage plot while a guest at the Majorca villa of a wealthy fan. Cage is no stranger to this kind of meta-narrative -he of course played Charlie Kaufman (and his fictitious brother) in Kaufman’s Adaptation. But this is no experimental musing on the nature of narrative and fiction, it’s a proper mainstream Hollywood action movie, not unlike the kind Cage headlined frequently for a while, only the character at the centre happens to be …Nicolas Cage.
However ‘character’ is the proper term here, and that may be what helps Cage’s performance: this is quite clearly not Cage himself. There are obviously hallmarks of his real identity here and there -his sense of style, his boisterousness, his artistic tastes and love of cinema (The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari is name-dropped a couple times as Cage’s favourite movie -and I could buy that). But in terms of Movie Cage’s personality and story arc, it feels more generic. Even the specificity of Cage’s own screen image isn’t employed much directly -and in fact a handful of other celebrities could have filled the role (I think especially of Cage’s Face/Off co-star John Travolta). This is good for Cage though because he plays it well, this passionate if egotistical celebrity burdened by diminishing opportunities and a distant relationship with his family -his wife here played by Sharon Horgan and his daughter Lily Sheen (he has no daughter in real life). Cage certainly has fun with the self-referencing and does play up a few of his signature mannerisms, but separate from that he just makes for a good Hollywood doofus type roped into a ridiculous circumstance.
The context for that is that a depressed and dejected Cage is invited to be a special guest at the birthday party of Spanish billionaire Javi Gutierrez (Pedro Pascal), an obsessive fan who has written a screenplay for him. But Javi is suspected by the CIA of being responsible for a major political kidnapping, so naturally they recruit Cage to spy on the guy for them. The only problem is that Cage and Javi, after an initial bristling, soon become good friends.
The heart of the movie is actually in this strange buddy dynamic -Cage and Pascal have tremendous chemistry as they bond over shared insights, outrageous antics, and movie tastes (in one awesome scene Javi introduces Cage to the irresistable joy that is Paddington 2). It’s a likeable, healthy relationship and the movie extracts good amounts of comedic tension out of the possible sinister nature of Javi and his machinations towards Cage. But just as much it develops fun conceits, such as in Cage’s ruse of sticking around to write a movie with Javi actually becoming something they both get invested in, and in a further layer of meta-text is a mirror of the movie being enacted, in tone as well as plot. Co-writer-director Tom Gormican has fun in this, lamp-shading conventions without dulling them and keeping the fourth wall intact in spite of temptation. Most of the weird shit that Cage does and says has no obvious winking to it, it actually fits the comedy organically. And Pascal goes toe-to-toe with him in this regard, often just as funny and with arguably a more engaging personality and background.  For all Javi’s wealth and power, he’s got notable hang-ups and insecurities, and a boyish enthusiasm for both movies and Cage himself that can’t help but be endearing.
The rest of the cast does well enough. Tiffany Haddish and Ike Barinholtz play Cage’s handlers, guiding his moves in addition to functioning as foils for the star; Neil Patrick Harris is his agent -but these are not roles made up of much substance, though Horgan is gifted with some good material by the third act. That’s where some of the most ludicrous stuff is sequestered, as well as one of the funniest sight gags from a comedy in years -where it shakes up the plot in a more satisfying way that allows Cage and Pascal both to play things up to their highest octave. It wasn’t always the stablest road getting there though.
The element that maybe works the least from both a narrative and humour standpoint is a recurring demon figment of Cage’s past called Nicky -a de-aged Cage designed to resemble a Terry Wogan appearance from around the time of Wild at Heart, who exists textually to be a symbol of lost idealism but more honestly is just the cartoon caricature of Cage. He shouts maddeningly half his dialogue, exhibits an outrageous coked-out exhilaration, and flat-out references the memes. The routine is never as funny as it wants to be, is mostly arbitrary to anything else going on in the plot or character arcs, and seems to be exactly the sort of pseudo-mocking material that led Cage to turn down the movie several times before Gormicon could convince him it was respectful. Most of the movie is, poking fun but from a place of clear love and admiration. Which is what makes these diversions so jarring -a shallow uninspired supplement for that vapid internet base.
The film also fails to do anything terribly different with the estranged parent plot line and the ending probably overplays the meta theme. Still, for a movie that pairs very Hollywood conventions of action-comedy with artistic egotism and a title play on The Unbearable Lightness of Being, this movie is surprisingly unpretentious and decently fun. Not giving in to a lot of the obvious jokes and story patterns for an idea that very much could be hamstrung by its’ own perceived cleverness goes a long way. And Cage being willing to take on the task of sincere self-parody for the sake of what amounts to a likeable story of friendship just seals the deal. A nice gonzo bit of entertainment that thoroughly, charmingly brings Nicolas Cage back into the limelight …not that he ever left.

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