When I first became aware of this film, I was excited. Not many actors have garnered a reputation as unique as Nicolas Cage; it doesn’t matter if you love or hate him, the word that best describes him is truly “unique”. So it made sense for him to go even more meta than in Adaptation. (2002, my review here) and make a movie that should have been the peak of “Cageiness”. Or would it be “Caginess”? Either way, as you might tell from the “should have been”, I thought the movie mostly worked, but overall it didn’t deliver as much as I hoped it would.
This film had to have been made from the fan angle, from someone who truly loves and admires Nic Cage. It’s like with amazing comedy roasts; they only work if the person insulting the “target” of the roast likes/loves them. If they don’t care for them, it can turn awkward really quickly. And you can tell The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent was made from a pure love for Cage and his career, however odd that career might have been. But dare I say it might have been made by a fan who was maybe too close? Tom Gormican not only wrote but also directed this film, and listening to his interviews about this film, you understand that not only he is a fan of Nic’s but also he didn’t want this film to turn “mean” or punch down. And I get it, I don’t think either of us wanted that, but at the same time, I wanted more.
For example, if you already have Nic Cage playing two roles (himself and himself again, as “Nicky”), why not use that for more self-deprecating humour? I get there might have been some references or lines the actual Nic Cage wouldn’t be happy with, but it just felt like the movie scraps the surface as to exploring the vast, intriguing mind of somebody who became a meme back when memes started. Before it was “popular” to make famous people into memes, Nic Cage was already one, for better or worse. And the movie never addresses some of the more obscure roles he became infamous for and that “helped” Nic become the “bigger than life” entity he is now.
And that was my main issue with The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent. The film feels like it’s in on the joke, but only on half of it. For as many crazy scenes as there are in this film, I expected/wanted more. Because we are not talking about any other actor, we are talking about Nicolas fucking Cage here. This approach – kinda biopic, kinda fiction action film seems to want to have it both ways, and I would like to know how much was it down to the director/writer being “too big of a fan” and how down Cage was with being the butt of some jokes. My uneducated guess would be 50/50.
Don’t get me wrong, The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent is a fine film I have enjoyed. I liked the action scenes, I thought Pedro Pascal was brilliant in this film, but everything else besides him and Nic, I could do without. For example, Tiffany Haddish is in this film; and her character is totally pointless. Her character has some funny lines, but overall she and her fellow agents serve no purpose. This film is weirdly split between being an ode to Nic Cage whilst also being an action/spy film, and neither of those is working to their fullest potential. The Nic Cage ode works much better than everything on the action/spy side; I could have lived without it.
And maybe that begs the question – would this be a perfect short film? Would this film work much better as a movie with a runtime of 60/70 minutes with just Cage and Pedro talking about his life and reliving some of their favourite scenes from Cage’s films? Possibly. The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent feels like the classic movie structure hurts this film the most. And if you think about it, where else than this film could we have dropped the need for a certain number of acts? Who needs act two or three? Who needs a plot? If you have a movie titled The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent and it stars Nicolas Cage as himself, do audiences go in and expect a “by the book” film? As the meme with Pedro Pascal goes: “Life is good, but it can be better.” And that’s how I feel about this movie – it’s definitely a well-made action flick that celebrates the career of one of the most unique actors who has ever lived, but it should have been just a tad bit… more. Crazier, bigger, more unhinged.
Overall, The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent is a good time if you are a massive Nicolas Cage fan. If you get at least 50% of all the references, you are in for a good time. If not, you might want to brush up on your Nic Cage filmography a bit before watching this film. I think the Nic Cage storyline mostly works, the other storyline is your average action flick, but it still has so much going for it, the pure joy of Pedro’s performance; I am a bit forgiving. Also, if there is one thing we can all agree on, and this film talks about it very openly is the fact that Paddington 2 (2017, my review here), in fact, fucking rules.
That’s all for this one! Did you see it? What did you think about it? Let me know!
Until next time,
Luke