Nicolas Cage (played by Nicolas Cage) is struggling to break back into serious acting. After his meeting with director David Gordon Green (played by David Gordon Green) doesn't go well and they decide to go in a different direction, Cage is ready to retire from acting. However, his agent, Richard Fink (played by Neil Patrick Harris), phones him with an enticing, if unconventional, offer: $1 million dollars to attend the birthday party of a billionaire super fan, Javi Gutierrez (played by Pedro Pascal). At first, Javi seems like a harmless, if a bit odd sort of fellow. However, things take a turn when Cage is approached by two CIA agents, Vivian and Martin, (played by Tiffany Haddish and Ike Barinholtz), who inform him that Javi is a suspected arms dealer who is believed to have kidnapped the daughter of a Political candidate in an attempt to manipulate the upcoming election. They need Cage's help to try and find the daughter, who they believe is being held in the compound where Cage is staying. However, Nicolas finds himself in a predicament as he starts to bond with Javi and struggles to believe that the sweet, affable Javi could be the ruthless arms dealer he's being told he is. This leads to a wild adventure where Nicolas Cage is unsure who to trust, all the while getting some questionable advise from an imaginary younger, wilder version of himself (played by Nicolas Cage).
The film was directed by Tom Gormican from a script he wrote with Kevin Etten. The premise of the film is a fun one and is clearly one created by a couple of real Nicolas Cage fans. Honestly, there are not that many actors today that this film would work this well with except someone like Cage, who has developed this sort of eccentric myth about him that the film exploits well. Everything we have heard about Nicolas Cage over the years, from his bizarre spending habits to career struggles figure into the plot as Nicolas finds himself in a very odd adventure. The film sets up an interesting dynamic between Cage and Javi, whose birthday party he is being paid to attend. The two bond over the course of the film and on the surface he seems like a genuinely nice guy who is a big Nicolas Cage fan and even has a screenplay he wants Cage to star in. Yet we are also told that he is a ruthless arms dealer and it adds a nice level of intrigue to the film wondering if the CIA agents have the right guy and indeed if Javi is going to show his true colors. As the film goes on, it becomes more action centric and the filmmakers do a great job blending the action with the more comedic elements of the film.
Nicolas Cage is clearly having a lot of fun playing an exaggerated and perhaps more neurotic version of himself that leans into the public view of himself, with his unique behaviors and eccentric spending habits as well as the apparent downturn his career has taken lately all playing into the version of himself he is playing. He also gets to let loose with a crazier imaginary version of himself that appears on occasion throughout to Cage and offering some questionable guidance. Pedro Pascal is great at as Javi, showing a genuine warmth to the character while also hinting just a little that there may be something darker to the character (whether or not there is, I will leave to the audience to discover). He and Cage play off each other wonderfully making the friendship that develops between the two easy to believe. Tiffany Haddish is a lot of fun as the CIA agent Vivian who recruits Nicolas Cage to help spy for them. She brought a lot of energy to the role and played it in a real unique and interesting way that I appreciated. Neil Patrick Harris does a lot with his supporting role as Nicolas' agent, Richard Fink as the sort of loudmouth, wheeling-dealing Hollywood agent we would expect and having a lot of fun with that archetype.
Overall, The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent is a very funny meta comedy that explores the pop-culture mythos of Nicolas Cage in a entertaining way. It is a film that was clearly made by Nicolas Cage Super fans, as not only do his more well known movies such as Con Air or Face/Off get a mention but so do his smaller films, such as Guarding Tess, figure into the story. In the end, it's a very silly movie but it is a clever one that I certainly had a lot of fun with and look forward to seeing again once it hits Blu-Ray.
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