The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent movie review: A smart and sassy riff on the Nicolas Cage syndrome

I’m here for the legends-getting-vulnerable-and-existential-with-meta-movies train. The unbearable weight of Martin Scorsese’s massive talent was called The Irishman. For Tarantino (and Leonardo DiCaprio), it was called Once Upon A Time In Hollywood. For Kenneth Branagh, it was called Belfast. For Shah Rukh Khan, it was called Fan. For Anil Kapoor and Anurag Kashyap even, it was called AK vs AK. While every Nicolas Cage movie in the last ten years could be titled The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent, his cinematic therapy session is, naturally, a silly action comedy. 

That the film can be described as happily mediocre – if not for the metaphorical cage of Nicolas himself – further elevates its campy genius. It’s fun, frothy and disarming, but in the most Nick Cage way possible, where the inception of Nick Cage-ness means that the sheer torture of being Nick Cage is both the film’s double bluff and its in-joke. There is a kidnapping, an acid trip, an espionage mission, a bromance and a film premiere – which is a bit like watching James Bond star in Austin Powers as a broken and desperate James Bond. The irony is that Cage has been enjoying quite the third innings. Mandy, Pig and now this film amount to exactly the sort of invigorating and inventive work that his “character” here seeks. 

Like any good self-reflective statement, The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent – which is incidentally a phrase most bitter writers would love on their tombstones – is not a smug celebration so much as a cool confession. The film acts as a sporting culmination of its star’s much-publicized direct-to-VOD phase. Several articles have emerged lately about Cage’s debt-ridden decade. And now I get why.

Cage of course stars as a not-so-distant version of himself: a broke and aging Hollywood has-been who’s on the verge of ‘retiring’ from acting. He’s so desperate that he auditions in a hotel driveway for Joe director David Gordon Green. Sick of the rejection, Cage accepts a $1 million offer to attend the birthday of a rich Spanish superfan in sunny Mallorca. If there’s one thing the movies have taught us, it’s that life is anything but boring when an American goes on a trip to Europe. 

This superfan, Javi, is played by the terrific Pedro Pascal, in a meta riff on his own fame. The CIA in Mallorca use Cage as a mole because they’re convinced that Javi is the arms cartel boss – Pascal was the cop in Narcos – behind the kidnapping of the Catalan President’s daughter. (When Cage passes out after accidentally drugging himself, an agent’s last-ditch solution is to shout “Action!” – only to see the thespian rise like The Undertaker). Some of the film’s best scenes feature the Javi and his idol forging an unlikely bond through their love for cinema. A passionate Javi even has a screenplay he wants Cage to star in, which becomes a running gag in a narrative that features not one but two midlife crises. 

The chemistry between the two is great to watch, especially because one senses a genuine connection amidst a circus of Nick Cage tropes. It’s certainly better than the chemistry between Cage and his imaginary younger self – a Wild At Heart meets Leaving Las Vegas alpha stud – who, at one point, smooches Cage in the most profound image of moviestar narcissism ever captured on screen. 

The question, as always, is: Does the novelty of this meta-ness wear off? At 107 minutes, that’s bound to happen. But perhaps the marriage of real and reel is so endearing – no actor has manifested his own legacy so consistently, for so long (remember Kick-Ass?) – that even the generic set pieces feel like a drunken personal essay. Nicolas Cage has always been a cocktail of celebrity and myth: an actor who performs like a star and simultaneously a star who performs like an actor. He is both bigger and smaller than his films at once, which is a massive achievement in an era where entire careers are rooted in the cult of self-reverential glory. In India, where art is routinely reduced to a canvas of egos, a superstar announces his collaboration with a blockbuster director in a skit-like video. But Nicolas Cage announces his collaboration with Nicolas Cage by turning his ego into a canvas for art.  

Rating: 3.5/5

The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent is playing in cinemas.

Rahul Desai is a film critic and programmer, who spends his spare time travelling to all the places from the movies he writes about.

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