“The Weight of Talent” Brings Nicolas Cage Back to Theaters in a Beaten Formula | critique

Before starting this review, I ask you a question: When was the last time you went to the cinema to watch a movie starring Nicolas Cage? Not everyone will know the answer and few will remember that it was in 2011, with “Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance”, which Nic Cage who last hit the big screen. Since then, the actor has surrendered to home video and to streaming to pay off a multimillion-dollar debt accumulated over the years and which he himself assumed was finally paid.

Almost a decade later, cage returns to theaters in “The Weight of Talent” to play himself as one of the few actors today who could do it. Of course, there are famous cases such as that of Bruce Willis appearing like Bruce Willis in “11 Men and a Secret”, and also the case of Bill Murray being himself, or rather a Bill Murray zombie, in “Zombieland”, and still one of my favorites: John Malkovich how John Malkovich in “I Wanna Be John Malkovich”. However, these are all brief appearances, the famous cameosnothing that works other than a humorous tirade.

Nicolas Cage in “The Weight of Talent” is a different case. The actor, once highly respected and winner of the Oscar for Best Actor for his performance in “Farewell to Las Vegas”, has become something of a movie myth, either for his lifestyle that led him to the aforementioned debt and mainly for his extremely exaggerated performances that are part of his overacting. so imagine Nic Cage being himself in a film that brings him back to the big screen after so long already arouses curiosity in itself, even more so that “The Weight of Talent” relies on cage as the center of attention and not as a brief participation.

In the story, Nicolas Cage (Nicolas Cage) finds himself at the bottom of his career and his life: he is experiencing a financial crisis, his daughter and ex-wife see him as an absent father and proposals for new films are not enough. Desperate and out of options, he accepts a million-dollar proposal to leave for Spain and attend the birthday party of a fanatic fan, played by Pedro Pascal (“The Mandalorian”). At first, the two build an uplifting friendship, mainly for cagewho finds himself being fawned over, however, things take an unexpected turn when cage is recruited by a CIA agent (Tiffany Haddishfrom “Girls Trip”) and is forced to investigate his biggest fan because he is allegedly a dangerous international drug dealer.

The director Tom Gormican (“Dating or Freedom”), who also signs the script alongside Kevin Ettenwastes more creative ideas on the path of buddy comedies – genre that was successful in the 80s with films like “Tango & Cash”, “Lethal Weapon”, among others -, placing cage and the javi of Pedro Pascal side by side in an adventure that manages to have one or another humorous moment, such as the escape through a Spanish village without any kind of threat present, however, when taking on this proposal, “O Peso do Talento” becomes increasingly dependent on this kind of gag and also the same joke that keeps repeating itself. It works for awhile, but even on a movie that’s just over 1 hour and 40 minutes it’s tiring.

Not that it’s bad to have fun with the duo cage and pascal – the best thing about the movie – or watching cage embodying a CIA spy without having the best knack for it, quite the contrary, between absurdities, clumsiness and references to the actor’s iconic films such as “A Rocha”, “60 Seconds”, “Captain Corelli”, among others, the moments of laughter are guaranteed, but the frustration with the simple script of “The Weight of Talent” is undeniable, which is based on something that buried the very career of cage: It’s cliché on top of cliché. Worse, it seems that Nic Cage is not actually the Nicolas Cagebut any generic character he would play in the last few years to make another fat check at the end of the recordings.

In short, “The Weight of Talent” is not a film that will once again make producers rethink the proposals sent to Nicolas Cagejust as it will not make any fan of the actor believe that the time has come for him to stop – even more so after seeing him so well in the recent “Pig” and soon as Count Dracula in “Renfield” -, the truth is that the best part of the film is to notice how Nicolas Cage he manages to laugh at himself, and he also allows us to, making the film an uncompromising yet, at the same time, disposable session.