The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent doesn’t have the courage its own convictions, its central conviction being that Nicolas Cage is a thinly tethered whirlwind of transformational thespianism. It spends too much time allowing things to happen to Nicolas Cage and not enough time allowing Nicolas Cage to happen to everything else.
Nicolas Cage plays a heightened version of himself as an actor struggling with his career and his family when he accepts an offer to appear at a rich super-fan’s private party in Mallorca. While Cage wrestles with his identity, he’s pulled into intrigue involving a kidnapped daughter of a politician and soon in real danger that he has only played at in Hollywood movies.
There’s a meta moment in the film where Cage and Javi (Pedro Pascal), the super-fan, discuss a movie idea. Javi wants to make a drama about a man having an existential crisis, but Nic wants to throw in a kidnapping plot. A trailer moment, something to pull in the audience, Nic says. I take Javi’s side in this argument, because Unbearable Weight… is at its best when it is just Nic and Javi hanging out and basking in each others’ presence. Cage wants to be the center of attention, which has contributed to the rift with his ex-wife and daughter, but is understandably freaked out by Javi’s stalker vibes. Javi is part eager puppy dog, part dangerous wild card wanted by the CIA. Pedro Pascal matches Cage’s energy, reminding me of Alfonso Arau as both Juan from Romancing the Stone and El Guapo from The Three Amigos. I would have been happy to just watch the buddy-comedy How Nicolas Cage Got His Groove Back play out on this island without any spy action.
But it’s unfair to review the movie you wish they had made, so what about the action-comedy they did make? The comedy that doesn’t come from the duo’s odd friendship or Cage’s Hollywood addled mindset is kind of lame. If someone says, “Don’t worry, he’s knocked out,” he will immediately get up. All the reversals played for laughs are telegraphed loudly. Tiffany Haddish, prominent on the posters, is wasted in a thankless exposition-delivery role. The action plot is generic as well. They could have played it straight, with wild-man Nic Cage played off against professional criminals who didn’t sign up for all this drama. Or they they could have gone The Last Action Hero with over-the-top villains that would give Cameron Poe a run for his money. Instead the antagonist is a typical snarling psychopath who treats Nicolas Cage like any other guy off the street. The action itself would have worked if they had continued to foreground the Nic/Javi pairing, kind of The In-Laws but trading off the crazy guy role. But as the action ramps up, the buddy comedy gets pushed to the background, and we have mostly generic car chases and gun fights. The whole movie also feels choppy, as if there are chunks that got edited out during a rework.
There is fun to be had during the movie, even once the action plot kicks in. The film doesn’t forget that these are supposed to be ridiculous circumstances, and Nic Cage does get to unleash his massive talent. But the times where Cage’s personality comes out serves to contrast all the other times when he is just being driven by the events around him. Ultimately, I felt like the movie made too many safe ‘trailer moment’ choices and not enough of the moments that could only come in a Nic Cage (Oo-Aa!) performance.
Das Fressen 