The Unbearable Disappointment of Wasted Potential

The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent (Tom Gormican, 2022)

Don't usually feel the need to go into depth about movies that fail to wow me over. I'm willing to make an exception here however since Tom Gormican's The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent has a unique selling point that I, along with multiple others, made it onto our radar - Nicolas Cage playing Nicolas Cage. Yes, this meta-style movie (sick of that description) purports to give us the legendary wild-child of Hollywood a film where he's being himself. Pressing 'X' to doubt, since as great as that sounds, I can barely differentiate him from many of his other roles. But I'm jumping ahead of myself here and would much rather prefer where the film's major problem lies.

The writing for is simply lacklustre and fails to match its creative premise. The film gets off on the good foot by showing the viewer what's supposedly a day in the life of our modern day thespian.This ranges from highlighting his expensive and lavish lifestyle, landing film parts and his relationships with his ex-wife, Olivia (Sharon Horgan) and his daughter, Addy (Lily Sheen). These opening minutes are in my opinion some of the best scenes from the film as they're entertainingly satirical and pertain welcome criticism on Hollywood's film industry. A huge shame then as it immediatley ditches all that and plonks Cage in Majorca for some convoluted action comedy, where he's forced to become the heroic protagonist, like many of his on screen incarnations.

The best thing about The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent is watching Cage interact with his imaginary friend Nicky; a manifestation of Cage's former self during his Wild At Heart (1990) era. Those scenes are reminscent of Drop Dead Fred (1991) the best moments in the film, yet are few and far between. Instead, the film spends laborious time and effort on Cage becoming a C.I.A operative and uncover the whereabouts of a politician's kidnapped daughter and how Cage's fanboy host, Javi (Pedro Pascal) is associated to it. If it all sounds somewhat generic and formulaic, that's because it is. Some of the gags and references to Cage's work do land well, others feel like an after thought, like the "NOT THE BEES!", line being forced into the film. It all feels half-hearted and a little dishonest to me. It's a meta gimmick strecthed out into a two-hour long bland action comedy. Even the supporting cast seem to be aware they're in a formulaic comedy, since they make nauseating over the top reactions, and in Horgan's case, she takes it into Russell Brand levels of annoyance. Since the cast fail to take any of the events remotely seriously, it really breaks the premise of Cage having to be a fish out of water. Since they can't do that, I don't see why the audience should feel indebted to so, either. It fundamentally breaks the meta concept since its attempt to go one state further with its Nic-ception and end with a film adapatation of the events that take place (Demi Moore as his on-screen ex-wife this time), all feels equally as hollow as what took place in the film.

What really nags me about this film is just how much creative potential feels squandered. The film J.C.V. D (2008) did a far better job of distinguishing the reality and expectations of the legendary action star Jean-Claude Van Damme without copping out on its premise; not to mention in giving us one of the G.O.A.T monologues in cinema. None of The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent feels remotely authentic and that's what makes it such a wasted opportunity, because this had the potential to be another major highlight in Cage's late career like Mandy (2018). It's not a completely terrible film, but it is a wholly mediocre one; which is such a pity, as it had some actual potential.

Dada Debaser Bonus: 

Witnessing the uncanny valley of young Nic Cage in The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent had me hitting YouTube searching for that time he once appeared on BBC chatshow Wogan, while out promoting his classic film Wild At Heart (1990), where he gave a completely surreal interview. Be amazed as he condenses his larger than life persona into several minutes of unforgetable television. So good in fact, that it became the obvious source of Cage's imaginary friend / moral conscience in The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent.

Wogan (Nicolas Cage Interview)

Terry Wogan, 1990