Review: ‘Unbearable Weight Of Massive Talent’ Lets Nicolas Cage Go Full Cage

Massive talent has an unbearable weight.

The film was rated R/107 minutes.

Tom Gormican and Kevin Etten wrote the script.

Neil Patrick Harris and Tiffany Haddish were in the movie.

Mark Isham wrote the score.

The film opens on April 22.

The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent is both a commentary on itself and a dramedy. The premise of Nicolas Cage playing a skewed version of himself meeting a very rich Cage super-fan who also happens to be a ruthless international criminal is almost too clever. Cage gets to play a fictionalized, narcissistic version of himself and he delivers a fascinating bit of self-awareness, acting that is both a criticism and coronation of its top-billed character.

In the Space Jam movies, Michael Jordan and LeBron James played themselves. The version that is in debt but obsessed with living up to his offscreen image thinks his comeback role is just an opportunity. Fortune was happy when his agent got a $1 million offer for Cage to attend a birthday party of a wealthy olive oil baron. It seems like a rock bottom moment when Nicolas Cage finds himself genuinely drawn to the tycoon, a seemingly happy guy who loves Cage's films and credits the actor with being a positive influence on his life.

The second trailer shows that Cage is confronted by two CIA agents who inform him that his number one fan is the head of a major crime empire and that his goons have kidnapped a teen girl. Even though he can't believe that this delightful and eccentric fellow is a James Bond villain, Cage becomes a quasi-spy even as he becomes a quasi-spy. The truth is a little more complicated and potentially even more dangerous to him and anyone in his personal sphere.

The film is a celebration of Cage's long career. His last decade was spent as a VOD star, and there are references to his last decade in his action movies. It's no secret that Cage made a lot of films to pay off financial obligations, and it tells how we view the profession of acting.

The picture has bits in where it needs to be, but it also knows that the movie won't work if we don't care. The film tries to have its cake and eat it too. One of the first big Hollywood movies I can remember with a super-sympathetic villain was The Rock, which killed off Ed Harris's rogue general early enough for Cage and Sean Connery to get a convention action climax. There is some cheating in the third act.

I am reminded of how often all manner of movies twist themselves in knots to put teenage girls in danger, and some of the hijinks are almost willfully generic.

For the first two-thirds, the high-concept original does what it advertises, and its third-act gaffes are not enough to throw the game. It doesn't have the soul-searching confessional agony of J.C.V.D., nor the righteous anger of The Interview, but it is an enjoyable and well-acted bit of studio fluff. The film raises a glass to Nicolas Cage as a screen icon and a one-of-a-kind performer, as well as someone incapable of half-assing it no matter the circumstances. The picture feels like a remembrance of the idea that an actor could be the most memorable thing in a movie.