The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent (TUWOMT) is a hilarious, completely self-aware love letter to movie going. Also known as the ‘Nic Cage Movie’, the film sees the movie star take on his most demanding role yet- playing himself. Thinking about it, there are very few actors in the world that I think could play themselves in a film’s titular role without making the film seem egotistical and big-headed. Cage is probably the best choice to be put in this role as his impressive back catalogue allows for a great movie about the joys of going to the movies.
After accepting that his acting career is heading on a downward slope, Nic Cage (Nicolas Cage) reluctantly accepts a $1 million offer to attend a billionaire fan’s (Pedro Pascal) birthday party. But when the CIA (Ike Barinholtz and Tiffany Haddish) reveal to him that his new best friend is not all that he seems. Nic must work to uncover the truth about what’s going on whilst channelling his most iconic characters to help him.
A question I’ve been asked by many is; do I need to have seen Cage’s previous films to have a good understanding of this one? And whilst you’re experience with the film will definitely be enhanced if you have- majority of that will come from references and in-jokes to his previous films. TUWOMT is a standalone film and can be enjoyed by anyone.
Perhaps the best part of the film is the instant chemistry between Cage and Pascal. They share majority of the screen time together and the friendship they develop is unmatched. My entire audience was belly laughing at some of the moments they share in the film. Not only are they both comedically charming, they develop a genuine bromance that seems so real and convinces you that the actors were best friends with one another off screen too.
Whilst the film is an action comedy, it’s definitely more ‘comedy action’ than ‘comedy and action’. What I mean by this is that the action is not designed to thrill, it’s merely designed to be another source of comedic entertainment. Whilst this isn’t necessarily bad, it means the action sequences can feel a little bit cheap at points, if (like me) you didn’t always find them funny.
{SPOILER ALERT}
Generally, I enjoyed the main plot of the film. It can be critiqued. You could argue that the reveal of Javi being involved in a gun dealership (even if he wasn’t the head of it all) came completely out of the blue- because it did. There was no set and no clues given to make this plot twist somewhat believable. In addition to this, the tonal change from buddy-comedy film to a spy-action was extremely sudden and almost out of nowhere. The saving grace here however, is how it is all completely intentional. Throughout the film, Nic and Javi are writing and brainstorming a film together, and the genius part is the film we are watching is revealed to be the film they create. This level of self-awareness is genius to me and such a detailed inclusion.
Overall, TUWOMT is exactly the sort of bold idea, original film I’d love to see more of!
My score- 8.5/10
