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TThe rage surrounding the cult of Nicolas Cage – a host of barking midnight films urging the star to outdo himself with an even crazier performance than the last – has slowly become intolerable in recent years. The Oscar-winning actor, eschewing any semblance of a serious career, happily obligated his fans, tearing the landscape apart and spitting it out with manic vigor. But while his oversized acting has proven to be mysteriously irresistible to some, I found him more and more squeaky, a silly joke that stopped being funny some time ago.
Each new role, usually played at an 11 when a 7 would do, pushed Cage deeper and deeper into the boring, screaming and showboating self-parody rather than doing anything interesting, moving further and further away from the fine, silent work he did. in films like Leaving Las Vegas, Joe and The Weather Man. On paper, there’s something knowingly silly about his latest – a truffle hunter seeking revenge on whoever stole his pig – but in Michael Sarnoski’s muted debut, Cage has time and time. space to be sincere again, a rare experience for him and a reward one for us. It’s not substantial enough to sit next to his other career highs, but it’s effective enough to make us want more challenges from him, hearing him whisper rather than scream.
In Pig, Cage plays Robin, a man living in the Oregon wilderness with just his pig for company. The couple survive by selling the truffles they find. But when her pig is kidnapped in the middle of the night, Robin is forced back into the world he’s turned his back on to find out why she was kidnapped and how he can get her back.
It’s a setup vaguely reminiscent of the John Wick movies or, more recently, Nobody and as such, Sarnoski almost deliberately plays with our expectations of what a movie like this will be like with an actor like Cage. We’ve been taught to expect a violent backstory and gnarly comeuppance, but from the first few scenes – beautifully shot, slowly unfolding – it’s clear this won’t be the revenge thriller we’ve come to expect. Instead, it’s a surprisingly gloomy drama that’s less about revenge than getting back, an unusual journey that takes us and Cage deep into the surprisingly dark food world of gentrified Portland. As a renowned ex-chef back in a city overrun with trendy restaurants, he’s both confused and disappointed; but rather than poking fun at easy targets, Sarnoski’s storyline gives an unbiased view of the change, showing how the city has gone too far, but also how Robin is too far back.
Cage is remarkably restrained (save for an unnecessary scream), delicately deconstructing what we expect from him. His trademark tics disappeared, his voice all the softer, his swagger replaced by uncertainty, an aggressive howl that faded into calm. It’s his best job in years, admittedly low, and shows that under the lazy aggression of cheap seats he’s still a moving and cautious actor. The film hints at an encouraging new phase (although its upcoming roster, including a role as Joe Exotic, suggests otherwise), a realization of what can happen when he’s given the opportunity to do something other than high volume theater. It also hints at some exciting things to come from Sarnoski, a gifted visual filmmaker, who put together a promising, if imperfect, debut film.
Pig is ultimately as quiet as Cage is, for better or for worse – sometimes too quiet to be truly distinctive, but moving in his gaze on how grief can cause us to deviate from our axis, especially in last moments of the film. The film is about loss, but for Cage, it’s about finding something. Hoping he can find it.
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