“The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent” - Film Review
The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent was supposed to be a wild ride through the career of actor Nicolas Cage, with Cage playing himself. In the film, the movie version of Cage is going through a creative and personal rough patch. He is turned down for his dream role, his ex-wife (Sharon Horgan) and daughter (Lily Mo Sheen) want nothing to do with him, and he’s hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt. The only gig his agent, Fink (Neil Patrick Harris), can get Nic is an appearance at a wealthy man’s birthday party in Mallorca, Spain. Cage accepts the job and vows that after the birthday party for Javi (Pedro Pascal), he’s going to retire from acting.
When Nic arrives in Mallorca on Javi’s private plane, he’s recognized by CIA agents Vivian (Tiffany Haddish) and Martin (Ike Barinholtz). They’re watching the comings and goings of the plane in the hope of apprehending Javi, who, unbeknownst to Cage, is a wanted violent arms dealer. Vivian pretends to want a selfie with Nic and drops a GPS tracker in his pocket so she can follow him to Javi’s secretive compound.
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The rest of the movie flits between a burgeoning, drug-fueled bromance between Nic and Javi, a meta-commentary about movies in general, and a high-stakes kidnapping. In theory, this should have been a triumphant victory lap for Cage and his sprawling career. In actuality, the movie was afraid to truly lean into the absurd. For all its marketing and promises of Nic Cage at his most ridiculous Nic Cage, The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent proved that this “unbearable weight” is really quite bearable. That’s not a knock on Cage’s performance, but rather a compliment. He has the talent, ability, and probably desire to be much more outrageous than the limited script allowed him to be.
The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent also unfortunately leans into the new trend of attempting to derive humor from characters’ meta observations. When done sparingly this can be humorous, but the overuse in this film is groan-inducing.
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Within the film, Javi and Nic are writing a movie. They plan to make a “character-driven drama,” but recognize that audience members need more than something that gets them to show up to the theatre. It’s a comment about the script they’re writing and about the movie the audience is watching. For all of the jokes about how no one is making character-driven dramas anymore, The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent is barely character driven. All the development of the friendship between Nic and Javi was shown in a variety of montages, which totally defeats the purpose. One of the meta jokes they mention is that a screenwriter can trick people into watching a character-driven drama by luring them in with explosions and gun fights. However, for the joke to land, there has to be real, meaningful character development.
While watching the film, it was hard not to think of The Nowhere Inn. The film stars Carrie Brownstein, Annie Clark (aka St. Vincent), and Dakota Johnson playing heightened, fictionalized versions of themselves in a musical mockumentary. There’s a level of absurdism in The Nowhere Inn that The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent doesn’t come close to reaching. Both films wrestle with fame, identity, and friendship, with varying levels of success. Had the script fully let loose, The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent could have lived up to its grand name.
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