Movie Review : The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent (2022)
Nicolas Cage has been, more or less, playing his own role in movies for twenty something years. Save for a few exceptions, he's inevitably cast in the role of drunken, bumbling metafictional antihero who's identity is secondary to the idea that Cage is playing him. This is not exactly what's going on in The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent. Cage plays literally himself, an over-the-hill actor struggling to understand certain parts are now out of his reach. It’s fun and lighthearted and somewhat of a high effort shitpost?
In The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent, Nicolas Cage is a forlorn version of himself, looking another shot at Hollywood. He's making a fool out of himself at auditions in a prototypical Nick Cage way, but his agent (Neil Patrick Harris) Richard Fink finds him an intriguing gig: being the guest of honour at a mysterious billionaire playboy (Pedro Pascal)’s birthday party in Majorca. That billionaire playboy happens to be Cage's most rabid fan, a full fledged crazy person and an international criminal.
The Unbearable Weight of an Unbearably Great Idea
Nicolas Cage playing a fictional version of Nicolas Cage in a movie meant to celebrate Nicolas Cage is a wonderful idea. To a certain extent, it's enough to carry The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent. Cage and Pedro Pascal interacting with one another with a hero-stalker dynamic is fun and it remains fun for the 107 minutes of the movie despite the derivative storyline. That’s both the movie's problem and saving grace: it could've been a lot deeper and engaging, but it opted to be throwaway fun.
Cage and Pascal could’ve been counting magic beans or sorting out screws in The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent and it would’ve been as much fun as seeing them play international cops & robbers. Tiffany Haddish and Ike Barinholtz play the two CIA agents tried to capture Pascal’s character Javi and while they are good, they could’ve been interpreted by cardboard cutouts in this movie and it would’ve had the same impact. Cops and robbers is not what this movie is about. It’s just an excuse to make it more visual.
The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent is, at its heart, a film about accepting the love of someone you don’t know. A story about separating who you are and what you want. Javi is unarguably a dangerous person, but he isn't the one putting his hero in danger. He's merely the reflection of Cage's professional accomplishments: someone inspired to tell stories. That itself is a cool idea. Could it have been interpreted in a deeper, more meaningful way? Absolutely. Is The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent dumb and superficial?
Not really. It's just never quite sure what it wants to be.
Half of a great movie
So, what the fuck is my problem with this movie? Well, it never quite commits to what it’s really good at although it's really, really good at the easy stuff. One of the best scenes in the movie is when Cage and Javi ride a car together after taking LSD. It’s simple and self-contained. It would be funny to anyone watching it out of context on YouTube. I would’ve loved more of it? A movie about Nicolas Cage learning to love a weirdo stalker because the weirdo stalker loves him for the right reasons would’ve been better?
I feel terrible judging a film for what it isn’t rather than for what it is, but I feel that what it is (a comedic thriller about the CIA trying to nab an arms dealer) is really a poor way to exploit its own characters and the awesome comedic timing of its cast. The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent feels safe and forgettable although it is spearheaded by two of the boldest mainstream actors working today. I mean it’s fine. It’s a great way to spend two hours. But you’re never going to quote this movie.
You will eventually forget it exists
*
Should you watch The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent? Absolutely. It's much more clever and amusing than the latest Marvel novelty Disney is trying to shove down your throat and make you say thank you for. This is not an indictment of co-screenwriter and director Tom Gormican. It's his second movie and he's obviously got talent. But I would’ve loved to have more to say about it than it's fun to watch Nicolas Cage and Pedro Pascal tripping balls in a car together. It had more potential than that.
