The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent - Film Review

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Lionsgate's newest action-comedy film The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent might not have been made if director Tom Gormican had not written Nicholas Cage a personal letter, urging him to consider the script he had co-written with Kevin Etten, in which a fictionalised 'Nick Cage' - a screen actor on the rocks, career stalled, creatively unfulfilled, facing financial ruin – gets an offer he can't refuse.

Perhaps wary in the wake of Being John Malkovich, a film that celebrated the cult status of Malkovich, and unwilling to risk a similar film featuring himself as the subject missing the mark and bombing, Cage had already knocked the project back four times, but assented to at least reading the script. Initially 'terrified' at what he read in the first act, the twists of acts two and three intrigued him sufficiently to sign on to play an angst-ridden, career-crossroads fictionalised version of himself.



Chasing the 'role of a lifetime' that Nick's agitated on-screen persona is desperate to revive his career and finances. Cage establishes the flaky fictionalised characterisation of himself in bravura style, replete with his resident inner voice, a younger 'Nicky' in leather and shades who grinds his ego gears and keeps him believing that it really is all about him.



In a sequence wickedly satirical on all matters narcissistic and thespian, Nick misses out on the plum role and is evicted from his luxury apartment. His agent, Richard Fink (Neil Patrick Harris), mentions almost as an afterthought an offer of a cool million to attend the birthday party in Mallorca, Spain, of Javi Gutierrez (Pedro Pascal), a wealthy super-fan.



However, it seems that lurking CIA agents Vivian (Tiffany Haddish) and Martin (Ike Barinholtz) are setting up Javi for a fall over his criminal past and shady arms dealings.



They railroad Nick into working with them to expose Javi, but when estranged wife Olivia (Sharon Horgan) and jaded daughter Addy Cage (Lily Sheen) are inveigled into the sting orchestrated by Javid's suavely brutal cousin and one-time comrade in mob crime Lucas Gutierrez (Paco León). Nick must channel every action hero he ever played to save the day.



Against the gorgeously filmed panorama of Spanish island Mallorca, via everything from well-realised characterisation to amusing sight gags, the comedy pedal is kept to the metal, initially as Nick and Javi bond over movies, drugs, alcohol, and an apparent convergence of desire to achieve artistic fulfilment. At first, Nick is in it for the money, but – fuelled by his actor ego and a clever concurrent set of plot twists – it becomes more about the power of true friendship and – for Nick especially – what is transcendently important in life. Pascal's Javi shows depth as the dramatic menace of his associations are laid bare and he must make vital life choices as well.



The action sequences would sit well in any current Ryan Reynolds outing, as Nick battles to save those who truly matter to him. The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent makes telling observations on the illusory nature of stardom. The absence of 'Nicky' in the latter stages shows that Nick is by then past the narcissism and self-adulation. The journey towards this epiphany is laugh-out-loud entertaining, the emotions pin-point and devoid of sentimentality. Cage gets to take the mickey out of himself and in doing so has created something that not just John Malkovich would truly appreciate.



Does the real Nicholas Cage stand up to industry peer scrutiny? He does, in spades. This is finely wrought film-making, a more than just a star vehicle for a star. 4.5

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