The Unbearable Weight Of Massive Talent

This review may contain spoilers!

 

The Unbearable Weight Of Massive Talent is a comedy satire about Nicolas Cage, in which he is struggling with his acting career in his later years and accepts an extravagant payment to attend a superfan's birthday in Majorca. Unfortunately for Nic, his fan is associated with a known crime syndicate and the struggling actor must join forces with the CIA to bring his newfound friend down. I was immediately drawn to how they characterise Nicolas Cage in this; he's so particular and weirdly refined in his thespian ways. Yet he is also so desparate to fulfill his career trajectory, while unabashedly cynical at the collapse of his career and personal life. The Cage we are given in this film is hilariously consumed by himself, to the point where the best scenes in the film are a CGI'd young Nicolas Cage hallucination berating himself for losing his way multiple times throughout the feature. I found the relationship between Nic and Javi to really be the heart of the film, they have a lot of chemistry together and play off one another exceptionally well. Mark Isham weaves hilarity with the music for Massive Talent, building these tense and gripping pieces to really heighten the melodramatic comedy layered throughout.

 

Nicolas Cage, who played himself/Nicky, is remarkable as this desperate for success thespian take on the actor; I especially loved the younger Nic Cage hallucination and found those scenes some of my personal favourites. Ike Barinholtz, who played Martin, is actually pretty funny as the constantly frustrated CIA operative; Barinholtz really comes at his part with a lot of energy making his performance funnier because it was a different tone to what the leads were doing.

 

However, the best performance came from Pedro Pascal, who played Javi Gutierrez. When we meet Javi he is this impassive figure, one whom you don't really know hpw he's going to interact with Nic Cage. That said, watching Pascal immediately break this facade and turn into a gushing fanboy is hilarious and brilliant. He tiptoes hesitantly around Cage with this sense of reverence. I love how tightly Pascal and Cage work to build up the chemistry between their roles; with Javi constructing pretend acting scenarios to lure Cage into being more at ease. Watching Pascal embody all this nervous energy as his role juggles writing a masterclass screenplay, befriending his acting idol and keeping his criminal cousin content makes him the most amusing character of the feature. I loved seeing Javi breakdown and refuse to betray Cage, instead very nearly sacrificing himself to save his hero. It was a fun role and Pascal really committed to every facet of it.

This is a film that often pushes itself as being smarter than it is, but this never really proves true. Throughout the film the story casts winks at the audience indicating the film script our two protagonists are writing mirrors the events as they unfold in the film. But really this sort of self-referencing humour has been tried out and done better; not just generally, but in films Nicolas Cage has already starred in! Hello Adaptation anyone? The film tries to use this witty means of telling the story as an excuse to reduce a satire film about Nicolas Cage's acting career to little more than a buddy comedy in which he teams up with the CIA to take down a criminal organisation all while repairing Cage's relationship with his daughter and ex-wife. The core comedy elements often fail to draw genuine laughs, this isn't a cast built for comedic delivery which is the biggest thing that lets the film down. This is the sort of film that quietly shuffles from joke to joke and when you do land on one you'll probably quietly muse to yourself how witty it is. I also think the shell of parody in relation to Nic Cage is less than subtle, it's a very hard sell that Cage authentically acts like this in general. They probably would've found their way to something good if they'd grounded him in something a little more convincing. The visual style of the film is remarkably bland, often using simplistic or generic shots to craft a rather mundane Hollywood comedy. I also felt the editing didn't help at all with the extensive pacing issues, often cutting abruptly or lingering on shots for way too long without ever finding the middle ground.

Tiffany Haddish, who played Vivan, really looks disinterested and not at all engaged with her part in the film; Haddish never really delivers a funny line and she is far from convincing as a CIA agent. Sharon Horgan, who played Olivia, has absolutely no chemistry with Cage in this film; the pair are meant to be former husband and wife but you don't even feel like there's history there. Paco León, who played Lucas Gutierrez, is probably the most generic antagonist they could've conjured up for this film; León brings an aggressive Hispanic mob man who is only ever really guided by violent action and little else. Neil Patrick Harris, who played Richard Fink, is really only in this film to deliver exposition and he does quite a bland job; this is such a disengaged role that it's easy to see why Harris doesn't put a lot into his scenes. Lily Mo Sheen, who played Addy Cage, suffers from the same lack of engagement with Cage that Horgan does; I also really couldn't stand Sheen's angst-ridden portrayal of feeling unable to connect with her father. Alessandra Mastronardi, who played Gabriela, feels like a minor role that is pushed awkwardly into the script; Mastronardi and Pascal are paired as romantic partners but they share no chemistry whatsoever.

Nicolas and Pedro Pascal headline with immense chemistry in what is an otherwise mild-mannered comedy with serious pacing issues. I would give The Unbearable Weight Of Massive Talent a 4/10.