Hollywood fairy tale
The massive talent of Nicolas Cage
What matters in life? Nicolas Cage (l) as Nic Cage looks at himself in the mirror. Photo: Katalin Vermes/Lionsgate/Leonine/dpa
© dpa-infocom GmbH
Satire, bromance, family drama, action spectacle: The new film by Nicolas Cage is actually four films at once – at least. But all of them are about one thing: Nicolas Cage.
Nicolas Cage plays Nicolas Cage: The 58-year-old Hollywood star and Oscar winner (“Leaving Las Vegas”) makes a stubborn career break on the subject of “Massive Talent”.
After the theatrical release had been postponed several times, it was surprisingly brought forward a week. The film has been in cinemas since last Thursday (June 16).
It begins with a once celebrated star who has passed the peak of his career, who knows it but refuses to admit it to anyone – least of all to himself.
Legendarily failed
At some point it has to start again, he keeps telling himself in conversation with his successful self from the past – only to emphasize like a mantra: “Not that I’ve ever been away.”
“His talent and his career are legendary – legendary failure,” says the promotional text for the film. «Cage (played by Nicolas Cage) is a superstar. But then he just made too many bad movies.”
So far, so close to reality. Cage recently told GQ magazine that for a while he only took on many roles to pay off his millions of dollars in debt. The really big success from the 90s, when he won an Oscar with the role of a screenwriter drinking himself to death in Las Vegas, is actually quite a long time ago.
striving for fame and recognition
Completely unpretentious, he shows his vanity in his new film, his striving for fame, importance and recognition and how much it galls him that none of this has happened for years.
Because it’s always just about him and his “massive talent”, relationships with his wife and daughter have long since fallen by the wayside – and money is slowly running out. When he again fails to get the one role that is supposed to get him back on the road to success, he accepts the offer of a shady businessman (heartwarming: Pedro Pascal) to travel to Mallorca for his birthday and perform at the party.
The Spaniard’s motives? Not clear. Does he belong to the mafia? Does he want to sleep with Nick Cage? Or that his wife sleeps with him? Or is it simply the biggest Nicolas Cage fan in the world?
Nicolas Cage at the peak of his career
Satire, bromance, family drama, action spectacle: The new film by Nicolas Cage is actually four films at once – at least. Extremely funny at times, it quickly develops into a very predictable and often-told Hollywood fairy tale about the man who only realizes in old age that family is actually more important than career – even if you have such great acting talent as Nicolas Cage.
Incidentally, Cage now sees himself at a second high point in his career. “I consider myself very lucky at the moment,” he recently told the US magazine “People”. In recent years he has produced some of the “best work” of his life, which rivals any previous success during his first 30 years as an actor.
He sees some of his films from the last five years on the same level as films from the 90s that became box office hits or even earned him an Oscar, Cage said: “I put “Mandy” next to “Face/Off”. I put “Pig” next to “Leaving Las Vegas”.»