The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent (2022 | USA | 98 minutes | Tom Gormican)
In the Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent, Nicolas Cage doesn’t merely “break the fourth wall,” but mows it down like it’s a row of faceless henchmen in an action movie. Yes, this movie is about what would happen if Nicolas Cage played Nicolas Cage in a quasi-autobiographical movie that turns into an action movie. It’s really dumb, but it’s also hilarious.
With a career on a downward trajectory and creditors on his case, Cage accepts a cool million dollars to entertain a rich superfan named Javi Guttierrez, who Cage believes made his fortune in the legitimate olive industry. This is always, always, always, always a bad idea. Filmed in Croatia, the scenery is gorgeous. While there, he’s approached by a couple of CIA agents (Ike Barinholtz and Tiffany Haddish) who say that Javi is actually a bad guy arms dealer who has kidnapped a politician’s daughter and they need Cage to infiltrate Javi’s compound to rescue the girl and use Javi’s superfandom as a means to getting close. One scene has the CIA agents telling Cage they think the girl is being kept in a specific room but it turns out to be a shrine dedicated to Cage and his films with lots of props. It would be genuinely creepy if it wasn’t in a ridiculous movie like this.
If you think this sounds stupid, you would not be wrong. Sometimes I find Nicolas Cage as a meme more grating than amusing. One of the podcasts I regularly listen to recently had an episode based on “Shark Tank” where someone at SXSW made a pitch for a Cage-themed podcast and I cringed and winced throughout the entire thing. If you’re the type of person who would listen to a podcast about the films of Nicolas Cage, this movie isn’t so much up your alley as your White Whale, Rosetta Stone, Holy Grail, and religious obligation.
I can say, though, that the best part of absurdist comedies is the absurdist humor. Here was a conversation that made me laugh out loud:
Cage: (seeing a statue of himself that would give Madame Tussaud nightmares): “Is that supposed to be me? It’s grotesque. How much did you pay for it?”
Javi: “$6,000.”
Cage: “I’ll give you $20,000 for it.”
For what it’s worth, Nicolas Cage doesn’t see much of himself in the movie where he plays himself, telling collider.com last year:
I’m told the audience loved the movie. But it’s just too much of a whacked-out trip for me to go to a movie theater and watch me play Tom Gormican’s highly-neurotic, anxiety-ridden version of me. Because he kept pushing me in that direction. I said ‘Tom, that’s not really me. I’m really [made of] quiet, meditative, thoughtful moments. I’m not this neurotic, high-strung, anxiety-ridden guy all the time.’ But he said, ‘Well, neurotic Cage is the best Cage.’ I said, ‘okay, okay. Let’s go, man. I’ll do what you want.’ I won’t see it. But I do hope you enjoy it.”
The movie is extremely silly but the self-referential nature works because more jokes land than don’t. That’s a good thing because it could’ve been far, far worse than it was. No matter how you look at it, the Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent is a meme that turned into a movie.
The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent opens in theaters on Friday, April 22.