Absurdist comedy doesn't usually work for me. I need people in stories/movies to act like people act in the real world. When characters start acting over the top ridiculous, even when it's funny, the story loses me. With Massive Talent the story lost me about 20 minutes in. The plot, so loosely stitched together that it felt neither rational or clever, felt more like an excuse to get to certain funny scenes than to actually build characters or reveal some point. And while I felt Cage put on a good show, his performance was undercut by the film's utter irreverence for anything meaningful, ending up on a rather cliched "family" moral that made the Fast & Furious series seem deep.
I get that others may truly enjoy this gonzo romp that winks at its audience. It's all in good fun and I get that for many that's what they are looking for in a film. But for me this sort of story leaves me cold. I smiled a few times at some of the jokes but rarely felt moved to any real laughs. I appreciated Cage's performance, especially when he played against himself. The dynamic between the older more grounded Cage and his more typecast younger version was interesting, but I was disappointed the film didn't do anything with that.
And the story is boring. The narrative just skips essential plot building moments that would have been necessary if it needed us to buy into the story at all. And when something is no longer convenient it's gone. While Cage tries to go deeper into... well Cage, the rest of the cast feel like they are in a Naked Gun movie. Again I get why that will be attractive to people but to me it just wasn't.
Massive Talent just isn't for me. I hope others enjoy it and I think they will.
The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent
Starring: Nicolas Cage, Pedro Pascal, Tiffany Haddish, Ike Barinholtz, Sharon Horgan, Neil Patrick Harris, Demi Moore, David Gordon Green
Director: Tom Gormican
Writers: Kevin Etten, Tom Gormican
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