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The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent


Somebody on the Adam Buxton podcast recently told a story of a person who shouted 'UNBEARABLE' then stormed out of a screening of The Unbearable Lightness of Being. Well, not much of this film was unbearable, unless you dislike Nicolas Cage. Wrong film for you, if that's the case. For the most part, The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent was a bloody hoot. 

After a serious break-in/kidnap sequence, the film gets right into the Cage-work. There's a Hollywood lunch with a director (played by an actual director, David Gordon Green), where Cage - wait, I didn't mention, that he's playing himself in the film - tramples all over his chances of getting a sought after part. The car ride from the restaurant gives us a peek at the peak of this bonkers work. Nicolas Cage driving, Nicky Cage - from Wild at Heart, Terry Wogan appearance era - sitting in the passenger seat. This conjures up memories of Cage playing identical twins in Adaptation, though obviously this is played more for the chuckles. He cops a lot of shit, does Cage, but underneath it all, he's an incredible comic actor. His line to the barman after an 'episode' with Nicky is priceless.

The story that hangs off this central conceit is that Cage, missing out on the aforementioned role, decides to take a huge paycheck to appear at a millionaire's party in Majorca. Enter a very funny, very sincere, Pedro Pascal, miles away from The Viper or The Mandalorian. He plays Javi, the Cage-obsessed olive-garch, who has also written a script that he wants Cage to star in. The side wrinkle is that the CIA believe Javi is an arms dealer who is behind the kidnapping of the daughter of a Catalonian politician, and so they convince Cage to help them find her. And you think it's laboured now? This is just the first act.

The honking plot is really just an excuse for the relationships to play out - Cage with Javi; Cage with younger Cage; Cage with daughter, Addy (Lily Sheen); Cage with ex-wife, Olivia (Sharon Horgan); and even Javi with his cousin and his girlfriend. The third act feels a little slapped together, and in the desire for a satisfying conclusion it ratchets up the ridiculous, but honestly, this is where the film lives, in its own ludicrousness. When Cage can deliver lines about his Nouveau-shamanism acting style and remind himself and others that he's back, though he never went anywhere, we're ultimately pretty chuffed that this guy gets all the noise about him, and he's happy to pull the royal piss out of himself. Thanks Nic, I haven't had as much fun in the cinema for a long time.

The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent is showing in cinemas now.

See also:

This reminded me of when Jean-Claude Van Damme played himself in JCVD (2008), directed by Mabrouk El Mechri. For a few more examples of Cage's comic skills, try the Coens' Raising Arizona (1987), Robert Bierman's Vampire's Kiss (1988) and Spike Jonze's Adaptation (2002).

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