Film “Pig” with Nicolas Cage: Pig – culture

Of course, as an avid film fan, especially as a critic, at some point you come to the conclusion that the stories that can be told are finite. Woman meets man. Superhero saves the world. Vin Diesel drives a car (in “Fast & Furious”, parts one to nine). Almost all of them just variations on the same handful of story patterns.

All the greater the merit of the American director and screenwriter Michael Sarnoski, who came up with a story for his debut feature film “Pig” that has really never been seen before: Nicolas Cage is stolen his truffle pig. Spoiler: He misses it a lot.

If anyone is wondering whether this simple and ingenious synopsis is perhaps one of the best film plots that Hollywood has ever devised, the answer is of course: Yes! The film is available on DVD, Blu-ray and as video-on-demand. The fact that he didn’t make it to the cinema in Germany is regrettable, because “Pig” is a bizarre and touching work of art that you don’t see every day.

What kind of people are they who don’t even shy away from pork napping?

Robin (Nicolas Cage) lives in the wilderness of Oregon in an enchanted forest hut that would definitely meet the demands of the Brothers Grimm. His only companion in solitude: Apple, the truffle pig lady, with whom he tracks down precious mushrooms in the ground. The two understand each other as only two lovers can understand each other without words.

In the evening, Robin prepares a rustic tart with truffles and porcini mushrooms on an open fire. Mjam. He puts the pan on the steps in front of his hut and shares the evening meal with his pig. The togetherness is only disturbed on Thursdays, when a young yuppie named Amir always drives up in his bright yellow show truck and picks up the next box of truffles, which he then sells for Robin in distant Portland. But well, as a hermit you have to make a living from something.

Of course the whole thing is only one role, and as I said, Nicolas Cage is called Robin in the film. But you still have a great desire to imagine that the man himself lives in a forest hut with a truffle pig in real life. That would somehow fit into his career. First mega film star and Oscar winner; then protagonist of countless obscure B-Pictures, Youtube anger videos and a guide for well-groomed swearing – but now happy with pig far from stupid Hollywood.

In any case, the bitter crocodile tears that Nicolas Cage aka Robin sheds when two junkies break in, knock him down and kidnap the truffle lady Apple, look so touchingly real that one wonders where the actor ends and the real Nic Cage begins , or maybe it’s a completely insane documentary. The constellation is a bit reminiscent of Keanu Reeves and his dog, which is badly done at the beginning of “John Wick”, only more heartbreaking.

So Apple is gone, and that’s not a state that Nicolas / Robin can endure without going crazy. He needs his pig again. So he leaves his hut towards civilization. On foot, of course. When he finally reaches a diner and asks about the waitress who he once knew here, we also find out how long he hasn’t been around people: The waitress has been dead for ten years. So he has no choice but to his yuppie -To call the truffle courier Amir, who has to drive him around in the yellow sports car to find the pig. Because Amir makes good money on the truffles and has an interest in the bristle cattle appearing again.

The truffle scene is a merciless place, half fine dining, half mafia

The two of them pick up Apple’s trail, and here and there get hints from the Oregon truffle scene, which, as we learn, is half gourmet gastronomy, half mafia. A world that Robin knows from before. It gradually turns out that he was once the most gifted celebrity chef in Portland. A legend that disappeared from one day to the next, but whose cooking skills have become a legendary myth that restaurant people still reverently tell each other.

Yes, the restaurant people, there are strange characters, apparently especially in Portland. For example, one of them organizes a kind of “fight club” for waiters and cooks in a hidden vaulted cellar. Robin takes a beating there in order to find the next lead to his pig. As he follows Apple’s trail, the viewer learns why he has withdrawn from the world (a drama of Shakespeare’s proportions, of course) and that he can still cook like a god.

That’s a good thing, because when he finally meets his boss, a heartless truffle gulp who doesn’t shy away from pork napping and other atrocities, he can of course only bewitch him with a fabulous menu. Just like you know it from “Ratatouille”, when the rat Remy cooked the restaurant critic Anton Ego soft with her culinary delights. Just with Nicolas Cage. Your eyes will get wet again if you just think about it.

Perhaps, in retrospect, “Pig” will one day mark the moment when Nic Cage was on the upswing in the roller coaster ride of life – and in which actor and person are forever inextricably fused. At least his next film will be in theaters next year, and in it Nicolas Cage plays a man named Nicolas Cage. The title of the film: “The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent”. We are happy.

Pig, USA 2021 – Director: Michael Sarnoski. Book: Vanessa Block, Michael Sarnoski. With: Nicolas Cage, Alex Wolff, Adam Arkin. Leonine, 92 minutes. As a home video.