The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent

Grade: B-

I like Nicolas Cage like I like Jack Nicholson. Both can be gifted, effective actors when they do act – and they act occasionally, but most of the time, they just “play Jack” or “play Nic.” Nicholson has admitted as much in interviews. But they can be quite awesome when the perfect combination of role and movie comes along. I don’t think there’s an actor alive who plays a lonely, awkward, tortured, brooding loser better than Cage. He is the star of two of my favorites of all time: Bringing Out the Dead and The Weather Man.

In writer/director Tom Gormican’s film The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent, Cage stars as himself, more or less. He “plays Nic” – make no mistake. It is heightened, exaggerated, sometimes funny, and often a bit much. Nick Cage, as he’s known in the movie, has seen better days. He’s staying at a hotel, and gets locked out of his room because he’s delinquent on the bill. In desperation, he accepts an offer from Richard, his agent (Neil Patrick Harris) to make an appearance at a birthday party of an adult superfan overseas for $1 million. The fan is Javi (Pedro Pascal from The Mandelorian and Game of Thrones) who lives in ridiculously tricked-out oceanfront property. The CIA is very interested in him. When Cage lands, he is recruited by Vivian, a CIA operative (Tiffany Haddish) to help them find out information they want about Javi, and his connections to the crime family. Meanwhile, Javi and Nick form a friendship, and collaborate on an idea for a Cage-starring vehicle. In a predictably cute fashion, their concepts mirror the events of the movie itself (“We’ll do a buddy comedy, with lots of action in the third act,” etc)

Cage hallucinates a younger, ebullient Wild at Heart-era version of himself. He shows up sporadically, and is obviously also played by Cage, which makes us think of Adaptation – and it reminded me of how Birdman kept turning up to give Michael Keaton career advice. How they interact physically, and the greeting/introduction Young Nick gives Current Nick provided me with the two biggest laughs. The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent repeatedly builds up suspense to what we think will be a tense plot point, only for it to be a fake-out into something much more benign. This happens so many times that I started looking for what the fake-out would be. I’ll spoil one. There’s a small building on the property that Cage says he wants to see inside. He suspects it’s where a kidnapped teenage girl might be kept. Javi says he could give Cage access, but ominously warns him it may affect their relationship forever. He insists to be let in, and…it’s a Nicolas Cage shrine – a mini-museum filled with props, statues, and memorabilia from many of his movies.

The film is often pretentious, high-strung, and silly, much like Cage’s persona. An actor starring as himself in a fictional movie where they get to make fun of themself was famously and successfully done in Being John Malkovich, but unlike it, The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent doesn’t really break any new, smart, innovative ground. Unsurprisingly, its best moments are when it comes up for air from trying to show us how clever and hip it can be with real, honest, touching beats. Truth and sincerity always win.

Grade: B-