In theaters April 22
The Plot:
A cash-strapped Nicolas Cage agrees to make a paid appearance at a billionaire super fan's birthday party but is really acting as an informant for the CIA since the billionaire fan may be an arms dealer. He already has real-world problems, but now his life turns into a movie plot.
Lynn’s Take:
The award-winning film actor Nicolas Cage blends with his meme-tabloid-eccentric celebrity persona to play a fictional version of himself in “The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent,” as well as a character in a Nic Cage movie, and a younger motivational illusion Nicky Cage (credit listed is his birth name, Nicolas Kim Coppola).
Got it? A very meta premise has turned into an unlikely entertaining adventure film that’s fun to see with an audience -- especially one aware of Cage’s canon, for he channels some of his most iconic roles.
Cage, who is in on the joke, reminds us why he is both a movie star and a good actor given the right screenplay. Sure, he took the money and ran in many B pictures – in his defense, he says he likes to work.
As he did in several fine performances, especially last year’s “Pig” – St. Louis Film Critics Award for Best Actor and Critics Choice Award nominee – Cage has the last laugh.
If anything, the film reminds us of 40 years of film work, as he’s been memorable in action blockbusters “Face/Off,” “The Rock,” “National Treasure” and “Gone in 60 Seconds,” as well as romantic comedies “Moonstruck” and “Honeymoon in Vegas,” -- and directed by the greats, from the Coen Brothers in “Raising Arizona,” David Lynch in “Wild at Heart” and Martin Scorsese in “Bringing Out the Dead.”
Oscar winner for “Leaving Las Vegas” and nominee for “Adaptation,” he’s unafraid to go to the edge.
Co-writers Tom Gormican, who also directed, and Kevin Etten have crafted a crime-action caper inside a family drama, where a divorced “Nick Cage” has a tattered relationship with his 16-year-old daughter Addy (Lily Sheen – real-life daughter of Kate Beckinsale and Michael Sheen), and a desire to work despite projects not coming his way.
On the home front, ex-wife Olivia is played by comedic tough cookie Sharon Horgan. On the work front, Neil Patrick Harris is his agent. NPH in another golden cameo! (And he’s not the only one).
In the plot within a plot, Tiffany Haddish and Ike Barinholtz are CIA agents whose target is Javi Guiteriez, whom they think is a criminal mastermind. Javi is Cage’s rich superfan who has lured him there to read his screenplay.
In a twist of fate, Javi and Nic become fast friends and bond working on the script. But then real-life bad guys intrude.
Got it? The whole whirling dervish of a plot, moving between fictional reality and fictional narrative could be a head-scratcher, but the filmmakers make it entirely plausible.
Pedro Pascal, best known as the title character in “The Mandalorian,” is charming as the wealthy movie buff. The supporting cast has a lot of fun as well, but nobody more than Cage. He’s all in, and it’s rejuvenating.
Gormican makes it clear he did not develop this project to mock the actor, but to celebrate his special skills. Sure, it’s goofy in a “Being John Malkovich” kind of way, and things that don’t work can be forgiven because its heart is in the right place.
Light and breezy, this is an ode to the action blockbuster as only Hollywood cranks out. What’s not to love about a movie where Cage is his own hero?