The Unbelievable Fun of a Massively Meta Movie

There is something extremely satisfying about sitting in a theater with an audience and laughing at the same things in a really accomplished, very clever flick. I’m also a firm believer that more Nicolas Cage is never a bad thing and frequently, a very good thing. “The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent” is, quit simply, a hoot that hits all the aforementioned bases.

Cage plays the character Nick Cage, as well as Nick’s younger self c. 1990, Nicky. Nicky acts as a spirit guide to pump the near broke and somewhat broken down on his luck movie star. That Nicky bears a strong resemblance to Nic Cage from “Wild at Heart” only adds to my glee. 

The plot hinges on Cage having to attend a birthday party in Spain for a million dollars to - we assume, at the very least - pay off his $600,000 hotel bill. Of course, complications ensue; the host is a Cage superfan played by Pedro Pascal as one of the most charming fans ever seen and he is being spied on by the CIA (Ian Barinholtz as Martin and Tiffany Haddish as Vivian) for the kidnapping of the anti-crime governor of one of Spain’s provinces’ daughter (Maria, played with zest by Katrin Vankova). He gets far enough in to find out that the girl is not being held at the compound and really, the only reason he went through with the espionage was owing to Haddish’s agent Vivian guilt tripping him into it. Telling someone that whenever they look at their own daughter they’ll also be forever reminded of the girl whose death they failed to prevent is a good ploy.

Even so, Nick Cage is pretty convinced that Javi didn’t kidnap anyone. Spoiler: he didn’t. His cousin runs the criminal operations and Javi just, well, spends the money and writes screenplays for movies to star Cage. 

We get a Cage who is - while based on some aspects of Nic Cage’s personality - pretty different from the source material. Our movie’s Cage is overtly narcissistic, neurotic, self-absorbed mess (by contrast, Nic Cage, in our world, is pretty shy and if not exactly humble, he tends to be more reserved in interviews than his screen counterpart here). He’s hit a creative rock bottom, so much so that he tells his agent (the redoubtable Neil Patrick Harris) that after this birthday party gig, he’s retiring. He’s alienated his daughter Addy (Lily Sheen, daughter of Michael Sheen and Kate Beckinsdale), his ex-wife Olivia (Sharon Horgan), and really does seem delusional and washed-up, if not out. 

Cage and Javi bond over cinema in general (Javi’s favorite movies? “Face Off”, “The Cabinet of Dr. Cagliari”, and “Paddington 2”), Cage’s career, life philosophies, and all the stuff we all bond over. Including “Paddington 2” which Javi screens for Cage and both watch with tears in their eyes. 

Of course, there are scenes where both Nick and Javi are talking at cross-purposes and I won’t go into details because nothing I say can capture the nuttiness of the exchanges. Suffice it to say that Pascal commits to his fandom and adoration of his guest and is genuinely concerned about him. They bond early on before Cage is enlisted by Langley. Even after he’s cajoled into his first foray into spycraft, we know a serious bromance has begun that no cloak nor dagger shall rend.

The birthday party was a pretext to get Cage to accede to star in a movie written for him by Javi (that Cage’s agent casually discarded). Cage does read the script and likes it a lot but says no starring in it. He’s retiring, dammit. A little Kismet rather puts the kibosh on that. One is Haddish’s Vivian telling Cage needs to stay on at Javi’s compound to suss out where the girl is and then, a conversation with Javi who straight-up tells Cage he can’t retire; he owes it to the human race to continue his work. 

By this point, I was so far in. The references to Cage’s filmography are so integral, so well integrated, and while expected, continue to remind us that we are verging into not-quite “Being John Malkovich” territory but not too far from “JCVD” (which, if you haven’t seen it, do so soon…maybe even now) where Jean-Claude Van Damme plays a version of himself not very dissimilar to the Cage Cage embodies here.

There’s way too much to enjoy in this movie. To break through writer’s block, Javi suggests a drive to the cliffs and to Cage’s asking about a vial in Javi’s hand, his host replies that it’s inspiration. “LSD.” YES! More like this, please! Driving along a Croatian coastline standing in for Spain tripping balls would not be the worst way to deal with encountering a narrative impasse. They eventually wind up in a small seaside town and consider writing a paranoid buddy film based on their own relationship. Convinced that a couple of guys are actually spying on them, they run to a courtyard and to scale a wall, Javi gets on all fours while Cage gets to the top and extends his hand to lift Javi up with him, but can’t. “You’re heavier than you look!” “I have a big head!” It is a Big Cage Performance (there will be others in this) that had me peeing a little bit. 

Suffice it to say, all they had to do was walk a little over to the right and they could have exited through an archway. 

In the background of these and other shenanigans, of course, is the threat of Javi’s cousin, the CIA’s persistence that Cage stay on the case, and the relationship with Addy that Nick has done nothing of substance to address. Toward the end of the second act, Vivian tells Nick that he should introduce a kidnapping into the script as an element to trigger Javi into talking about the kidnapped victim. Cage says no, Javi is a shrewd and smart writer, this would be so totally off. Vivian says that it would broaden the appeal of the film. 

In yet another cross-communication conversation, Javi calls out Cage on introducing this plot twist and angrily tells him to quit lying. Does Javi know Cage is working for the Company? Nope! He calls him out because introducing this into their story is about Cage’s guilt regarding his dropping the ball as Addy’s after. Cut to the next scene where Vivian tells Cage that he’s compromised, there was a tap on their communications earlier and it won’t be long before Javi is wise to him. He has to pick up and leave as quickly as possible; there’s no time for an extraction. 

Except there’s a knock at the door and Javi brings Nick to a room where Olivia and Addy are waiting for him. Javi has Cage’s family! For an intervention! Javi demands Nick resolve his issues with Addy right now so they can move forward on the script. Nick fumbles accordingly; he can’t seem to see that all the time he spends with Addy, showing her films he’s interested in aren’t about sharing. He thinks he’s sharing experiences with her, but he’s really just trying to mould her into his Mini-Me. They decide to take a break and Cage tells Javi that after this, they get back on a plane and get back to the states. He then tells Olivia and Addy that he’s working for the CIA and spills everything about the kidnapping plot and naturally, they are somewhat worried that he’s cracking up. 

Javi’s cousin shows up on the scene and reveals the plot to him and tells him that he has to kill Cage. Cage, by this point, tells Olivia and Addy to get packed and ready to go. He’s going to get a gun. 

He actually gets two. In Javi’s compound, where Vivian suspected the girl might have been held is a Nic, uh, Nick Cage shrine room. It is a beautiful thing. A pillow with Cage’s face on it that you can wipe away (get it? Do ya? FACE OFF!!! Okay…I’ll stop…) is not the only allusion to the John Woo opus: at one end of the shrine is a life-size stature of Nick Cage as Castor Troy holding those golden twin revolvers in each hand. Yes, it is a monstrosity that Javi paid six grand for and Cage offers him $20,000 for (but it is not for sale, Mr. Cage). 

In a couple of edits, Javi and Nick are back driving to the seaside and Cage’s ruse falls away and Javi is able to tell Nick that it is his cousin who kidnapped the girl; Javi’s just the front/fall guy for the family. They don’t have time to do much before they’re set upon by cousin Luca’s men. We go into full Cage action film mode with a car chase and shoot out and it’s glorious. 

The film started out with Maria’s kidnapping (watching a Cage flick and I’ve zoned on which one it was) with her boyfriend as she coos, “fucking Nic Cage” with a smile on her face that everyone in the audience I was in approved of (pretty sure) but transitioned so fast into the Cage-centric development, it felt like such a edged in plot point. Though who knew it would be used so skillfully later? But the real action set pieces started in this third act when Javi and Nick dispatch the motorcyclists/would-be assassins (you do know that Cage insists on doing his own driving in all his movies, right?) It is preposterous, absurd, and all of a piece that fits into an increasingly goofy flick with such delightful precision. We get all the Cages in this movie; the brooder, the babbler, the action guy, but we get that funny bastard we first encountered in “Raising Arizona”. Let no one doubt Nic Cage’s comedic chops. They do so at their peril. 

I’ve left out Gabriela! Played by Alessandra Mastronardi, she is Javi’s assistant and of course, he has a crush on her but isn’t sure how she feels about him (and if memory serves, that she’s not in Lucas’s corner). In any case, upon returning to Javi’s compound, we find that Lucas has abducted Addy. Cage, Javi, Olivia, and Gabriela head for the CIA safe house which has been compromised. Martin is dead, and Vivian is able to fight off the rest, sacrificing herself. Cage and company head for a secret villa that Javi had built for the possibility that things might eventually go south and begin to plot how to get Addy out of Lucas’s grasp.

Here it gets a wee sillier (which, trust me, is fine!) And in another nod to “Face Off”, Olivia uses a make-up kit to disguise Nick as the prospective Italian criminal parter in Lucas’s scheme to get inside Lucas’s compound. I don’t know if people in Lucas’s compound didn’t know what Nick Cage looks like, but as weird as the make-up job is, it is distinctly Nic or Nick before us. And again, it is wonderful. 

In short order, they make it through some initial conversation, take out a guard, and are led to Addy and Maria. Nick is able to disarm Lucas and hold him at gun point while Olivia frees the girls and the three leave. They meet Javi at an entrance who goes in to extradite Nick successfully. Even having done that, though, Lucas rallies and rounds up a caravan to chase after our band on the run. In another “let me go, I’ll buy you time”/“I’ll never forget you” scene, Javi and Gabriela stay behind to take out what they can of the pursuers as Cage and the women head for the U.S. embassy. 

While Javi and Gabriela are able to remove a couple of vehicles, three get by them including Lucas’s. Cage is able to remove two of them but Lucas remains in hot pursuit as Cage crashes into the embassy’s courtyard. Lucas is on his tail and once out of his SUV, is able to hold Cage at gun point. Addy tosses a knife left behind (by Maria, I think, my memory is fading on some details) to Nick who uses it to take out Lucas. We transition to the movie version of the story we’ve just seen (with Demi Moore as Olivia! Olivia was pleased, I think). The movie ends with resounding applause. Javi comes into the theater and Cage tells him that he, Olivia, and Addy are going to head home and Javi can enjoy the after party and handle the press. 

We see the three settling in with Addy asking if she can borrow Cage’s belt with a huge tarantula for the buckle. He tells the story behind it that the designer originally wanted to use a scorpion, but Cage said no, too dangerous. The guy suggested bees. No, certainly not bees! They settled on the tarantula, then. They discuss watching a movie and Cage suggests Addy choose.

“Paddington 2” it is, then. 

This flick, if I haven’t made it plain, is a blast. Tom Gormican and Kevin Etten wrote a wonderful script that leans into all the Maximum Cageness of it all with heart and no small amount of affection. Gormican’s direction was pitch perfect and modulated for all the tonal shifts - from the heartfelt to the humorous. 

The performances were uniformly excellent, but of course, this is Cage’s and frankly, Pascal’s, film. The two of them are so committed and both have such a command of the rhythm of script and the different character beats throughout. 

I pretty much singled out “Face Off” as the main Easter egg since I think that was more or less the intent of the story. Having said that, the Cageisms fly all over the place. From “Con Air” to “Moonstruck” to “Wild at Heart” and deeper cuts, as well. The references simply add to the reflexive nature of the film, of course. Javi really liked “Captain Corelli’s Violin” (“It’s definitely underrated” opines Cage), too. 

The Mobius Strip reflexitivity in movies like “..Malkovich”, “JCVD” might seem to be the big thematic driver here in the metatextual dimension, but you don’t have to look further than “Adaptation” to add another layer. There’s a dip in the swimming pool that echoes a similar scene in “Leaving Las Vegas” and the more I turn other aspects of the story over, I feel an urge to take a plunge into Cage’s massive filmography. 

I have to ask, though, somewhat seriously; what are we to make of the self-referencing and metatextual elements in films like this? I don’t mean to go down too deep a semiotic path; I’d rather like to look at how cinema has since its inception, relied on some degree of bringing into a narrative that which is outside the text. 

It’s arguable that film itself is of necessity not just a recreation of the outside world, but a gloss on it, a refractory medium that alters what is seen by its plasticity in a way that none of the arts (except maybe theater) can. While we were all laughing at the same thing in the theater, I wonder how much of that laughter was deepened on reflection. 

One of the reasons why cinema continues to fascinate me and draw me in is that there’s a constant encounter with how much the sense of time is altered within the scope of any given picture’s timeframe. Rather like our own thoughts when we are aware of them, when we search for a thinker that may not be there, cinema creates an environment where we interrogate the concept of time and existence (not both separately; the temporal nature of a movie unfolding in time is both existential and oneiric, again, by necessity.)

For sure, not all films demand this sort of investigation or questioning, but film as a medium does and a film like “The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent” is a playful entree to pursuing such analysis. Sometimes, though, a movie is just a movie. 

Until it’s not.