Review: ‘The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent’
The idea of a film being meta has become a peculiar trend in modern filmmaking. After all, the general public usually consumes movies through the textual storyline presented to them. There is a lot that filmmakers can do to make an engaging, self-aware movie that brings into question artistic ability, but also the iconography that certain movie stars exhibit.
The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent, the new film by Tom Gormican marketed as a meta take on the career of Nicolas Cage, doesn’t really seem to understand this. Cage, who stars as himself, finds his career at a dangerous standstill. Rejected for a role that he hoped would jumpstart his career again, his last resort for relevance is the company of an elusive millionaire (Pedro Pascal) that might be more than he seems. Suddenly, he finds himself roped into a dangerous plan by two CIA agents (Tiffany Haddish and Ike Barinholtz) who want to take down a drug cartel planning a presidential coup.
There are quite a few routes to go with this premise, especially ones that tie into the idea of toxic fan culture or the stripping of identity. Sadly, Unbearable Weight does not seem interested in exploring these themes, instead going for a bombastic studio action comedy with contrived plot points and flat jokes.
When you watch the film, it becomes clear that Unbearable Weight is clearly geared towards those who enjoyed mid to late-2010s big-budget comedies ala The Heat or Central Intelligence. Even with its out-of-the-box premise, the film cannot escape those confines, seemingly checking off all the boxes of a studio comedy (for example, the film gives us two drug trip sequences, the second playing minutes after the first one). While some of the humor lands, the majority seem far too reliant on Cage references that they just feel more self-congratulatory than self-aware.
While Cage, for his part, does his best to act like his genuine self in a fun role, he can’t save the bland writing that insists it cares more about the actor beyond memes despite perpetuating the exact opposite. The same can be said for nearly every other performer in the film, with Pascal, in particular, shining in his scenes. Even if they are criminally wasted, Haddish and Barinholtz also pull in strong comedic performances.
On a purely aesthetic level, the film is a strange beast. While it is clear that many scenes were shot on location, the scenes that are green-screened are bizarrely obvious and almost uncanny. Speaking of uncanny, there is one character in the film that appears so creepy and artificial that, if viewers are anything like myself, could cause viewers to actively look away from the screen.
It’s a shame that Unbearable Weight is the film that it is. There is promise within Gormican’s story and directing, but what is actually presented is so safe and mediocre that it isn’t too hard to think about what could’ve been. – Erin M. Brady
The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent will be released in theaters on April 22, 2022.