The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent Movie Review: An amazing, amusing, and absurd Nicolas Cage star vehicle

The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent Movie Review: An amazing, amusing, and absurd Nicolas Cage star vehicle

We have a film that can be best described as a reminder that Nicolas Cage still has it in him to be the populist hero in our mainstream commercial films
Rating:(3.5 / 5)

What is The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent? Is it a fanservice film for one of the biggest enigmas of world cinema? Is it a meta film on stardom and perennially being under the spotlight? Is it a Nicholas Cage greatest hits all rolled into one? Is it a heartwarming tale of reconciliation of an estranged family? Is it an inspirational tale of creative acumen winning over commercial requirements while making a film? Is it an action-adventure that has a writer and star joining hands in a template buddy cop film? Is it a fun-filled espionage thriller laugh riot that veers into the murder and mayhem territory in the last act? Just like the central character, Nic Cage, a fictionalised version of Nicolas Cage played by Nicholas Cage, The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent is all this and much more. 

Cast: Nicolas Cage, Pedro Pascal, Sharon Horgan, Tiffany Hadish

Director: Tom Gormican

It is definitely a melange of various plot points, and director Tom Gormican and writers (Tom and Kevin Effen) show an effective way of a fanservice film. One can’t help but draw parallels to films closer home that fail to strike the balance between fanboying and making a compelling film. In The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent, the line is mostly well-maintained, and the wonderful casting of Pedro Pascal as Javi Gutierrez, who acts as the perfect foil to Cage, is of great help. It is Javi’s inclusion in the film that sets the ball rolling in this madcap film that ticks a lot of interesting boxes. Facing a seemingly insurmountable slump in his professional and private life, Nic Cage accepts a gig to attend the birthday party of billionaire playboy Javi. It is only after reaching the island that Nic Cage understands that Javi is more than just a genius, billionaire, playboy, philanthropist. He is not just a superfan who shares Nic’s love for the 1920 silent horror film, The Cabinet of Dr Caligari. The FBI, who are thrown into the mix, tell Nic Cage that Javi is a criminal mastermind, and the actor is roped in to bring Javi down. A few setpieces here, a few Cage-isms there, and bam! We have a film that can be best described as a reminder that Nicolas Cage still has it in him to be the populist hero in our mainstream commercial films.

The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent is a fun exercise for Nicolas Cage fans who get to see both a reticent Cage and an unhinged Cage in the same film. If the latter is seen in a hilarious drug-addled sequence in the film with a brilliant Pedro in tow, the former makes his presence felt in the emotional moments that involve him and his family. Very early into the film, we do see the eye-bulging, nerve-popping, voice-oscillating Nicolas Cage as Nic Cage puts on a Boston accent and plays a gangster in an impromptu audition. There is almost an even inconsistency in the following portions, and we are never sure which Cage we would get, and this is definitely a good thing. However, such films do run the risk of becoming a tad too indulgent, and The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent is no exception. While the gag of Cage seeing a younger version of himself, whose primary aim is to pump his ego up, culminates in the oddest yet hilarious visual imagery of them sharing a passionate kiss, has a rounded arc, not every gag of The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent stays its welcome. Even the efficacies of certain plot threads are questionable. However, since the aim of this film is to rekindle our Cage fandom, it is understandable why some scenes are in place. 

It is interesting how Nic Cage’s idiosyncrasies are both elevated and grounded by having someone like Pedro’s Javi or Sharon Horgan’s Olivia, who plays Cage’s onscreen wife, remind him of both his strengths and weaknesses. Nic Cage shares both exhaustive and poignant moments with both these characters. Be it the Cage-Javi scene on the cliffs or the throwaway dialogue about Humphrey Bogart that talks volumes about the equation between Olivia-Cage, I couldn’t help but want to see more of this rather than the whole FBI angle. While it is comprehensible why that plot device was employed in the film, The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent, just like the film that Cage and Javi want to make in the film, would have benefitted by having fewer genre shifts. But then again, we wouldn’t have got Tiffany Hadish and Ike Barinholtz, who play FBI agents, running away with some of the funniest lines in the film. So, an even-steven conundrum, I think. 

Ultimately, The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent is an evocative showcase of the stardom of one of the unlikeliest stars of our era. Nicolas Cage’s legacy is best expressed by one person qualifying him as the Moonstruck guy, and the other calling him the one from Face/Off. There is a smile on Nic Cage’s face when someone says Mandy is a masterpiece, and the same smile is seen when someone else says they enjoyed Croods 2. His face shows signs of pride when reminded of how he did his own driving in Gone in 60 Seconds, and there is understated happiness when he understands how Guarding Tess made two generations bury their hatchet, albeit briefly. As the young Cage tells his older, tired self who has bouts of self-doubt, “You are an effing movie star and not just an actor.” A bunch of us always knew it, and with The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent, it is clear that Nicholas Cage believes it too. It is now time for the younger generation, who majorly know him only from memes and viral material, to realise that the man who did The Rock and Ghost Rider also aced Raising Arizona and Adaptation, and the actor who did National Treasure and The Sorcerer's Apprentice was also part of Wild at Heart or Pig.

Basically… He is "Nicolas-f**kiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiinnnngggg-Cage" and as his Seth from City of Angels would say, “Some things are true whether you believe in them or not.

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