The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent – Comedy Gold
Director: Tom Gormican
Writer: Tom Gormican, Kevin Etten (Screenplay)
Starring: Nicolas Cage, Pedro Pascal, Tiffany Haddish, Sharon Hogan, Paco Leon, Neil Patrick Harris
Plot: A cash-strapped Nicolas Cage agrees to make a paid appearance at a billionaire super fan’s birthday party, but is really an informant for the CIA since the billionaire fan is a drug kingpin and gets cast in a Tarantino movie.
Runtime: 1 Hour 45 Minutes
There may be spoilers in the rest of the review
Story: The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent starts when Nicolas Cage (Cage) finds himself struggling to get parts, considering his future in acting, when his agent Richard Fink (Harris) offers him a one million dollar pay day to attend a birthday party for billionaire super fan Javi Gutierrez (Pascal).
Nick accepts the offer and learns that Javi is a good person, having a fun weekend, until the CIA request his help, believe Javi is in fact a Drug Kingpin, leading Nick down a path of a character he would play, testing his new friendship along the way.
Thoughts on The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent
Characters & Performances – Nick Cage is the over-the-top vision of Nicolas Cage in LA, trying to get his latest role in the business, struggling to connect to his teenage daughter, considering his future in the industry. He looks to take one last payday with the trip to Spain, where he meets his superfan that will give him a new lease for acting, even after leaving him getting caught up in the middle of the investigation into the very man he is hanging out with. This version of Nick Cage is meant to be over-the-top from what you would imagine meeting in real life, believing he is larger than life and that he is giving back to the world with his movies. He will also have a serious side, where he will have human problems, with family and being the best person for them, however much he is trying. Javi Gutierrez is the Nicolas Cage superfan that invites him to his mansion for the weekend, with plans to let him read his script, he is being watched by the CIA, who see him as a threat, with his menacing presence always making Nick uneasy, before the giving us his true identity. Despite being a billionaire, Javi is insecure and starstruck after meeting Nicolas Cage, before relaxing and becoming best friends. When it comes to the supporting cast, things do start to get shallow, we have Nick’s ex-wife and teenage daughter, that see he is trying, but find him hard work at times, as he always wants to be the center of attention. The CIA agents that get early laughs as they try to recruit Nick to help them, they tend to play good cop bad cop on him to get what they want. The performances in this film are carried by the brilliance of Nicolas Cage and Pedro Pascal who have amazing chemistry with the blossoming bromance between the two. The supporting cast are great, never taking the spotlight of the leading pair.
Story – The story here will follow a down on his luck Nick Cage trying to find his latest role and connect with his family, that gets an invite to a billionaire’s party, only to find himself in the middle of an international criminal situation, where the skills he has learnt as an actor will be the one thing that could keep him alive. This is a story that will play out very smartly, as it will give you the next sequence of events, before letting it unfold, using the concept that Javi and Nick are working on the script. We will get plenty of references to Nicolas Cage movies, which will get laughs for the eager eyes to pick up on. It will also shine a light on the idea that big stars can become distant from everyone else within their lives, causing bigger emotional swings in life. This movie will give us a chance to see the world from the eyes of an actor, poking fun at the crazy life of Nicolas Cage.
Themes – The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent is an action comedy that will see the career of Nicolas Cage thrown open poking fun at certain movies, his lifestyle and creating a buddy movie along the way. The action might well be down to what we are expecting to see, without needing to do anything more than giving us an actor thrown into the real-life action sequence he isn’t prepared for. The locations involved are brilliant, giving us a stunning backdrop for the two to spend time bonding.
Final Thoughts – The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent is a perfect blend of the action-comedy genre.