Craving a Meta Fix? Go Watch “The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent” Right Now. (It’s on Amazon)

It’s Meta, Misdirects, Layers of Storytelling and one Helluva a Good Time.

I will freely admit that Nick Cage is one of those actors that when I see they’re in a new movie I just immediately add it to my “Must Watch” list. Same with Ryan Reynolds. They’re two actors who I know, without a doubt, will always entertain me. When I saw the previews for this movie, I just knew it would be amazing. It popped up in my Amazon list and I immediately went-click, rent now, watch now.

And what a ride it was. Whew.

I knew it was going to be a bit meta, but I didn’t expect the almost but not quite over the top layers of meta; the self-referential humor was spot on and funny as hell. The somewhat corny overacting from both Pedro and Nick was just this side of cheesy and was very reminiscent of the classic “cornball” type movies from the likes of Chevy Chase, Bill Murray etc in their heydays. The absurdity of some of the situations could easily have come off ridiculous but you buy into it because these two actors sell the hell out of it.

I expected the humor, but what I didn’t expect was the heart. The premise is simple, the delivery is not. The story revolves around Nick Cage, as Nick Cage, struggling to find roles as he’s gotten this reputation of being a “working actor” not a “movie actor.” For those who follow some of his career, for a while he did a lot of direct to DVD movies, caught some flack for it, but did it so he could pay off some debts and keep working; which is referenced a few times in this movie. He gets turned down for a role and his manager offers him a job which is that a superfan, aka Pedro’s character Javi, is willing to pay Nick $1 million to show up for Javi’s birthday party.

Now, this plot concept could be very easily turned into 2 hours of horribly flat jokes about how down on his luck Nick is, how he’s basically whoring himself out and living off his glory days, but it never goes there. Where it does go is this delicate dance of self reflection for Nick’s character that’s laced into a whole case of mistaken identity-ish with Javi and the CIA (I won’t give too much of that away as it will lead to spoilers) which folds perfectly into a relaunch of Nick’s career and a realization of a dream come true for Javi.

The filmmaking in this is much more subtle than you’d think because in all the pranks, humor and some truly absurb moments, there’s always the driving force of the connection between Javi and Nick, and how Nick’s chasing of his dreams and his work has led to him missing out on so much with his family and leading him to be creatively blocked. It’s also an exploration of fighting against our inner egos, which the portrayal of Nick’s inner ego, by Nick is fantastic.

It’s currently sitting at 87% on Rotten Tomatoes and it deserves the high praise.

If you’re looking for something different, something that’s not action orientated, that’s not filled with overhyped special effects (which I do love but there are days I want story, not explosions) I would say give this a shot. Link here (it is an affiliate link)

I promise you won’t be disappointed. Sometimes the best special effects are letting the actors do what they do best, tell their stories.

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