Rating: 12/20
Plot: A corrupt cop and his mustache recruits a younger cop to help him break into a discovered vault.
"It's kind of wacky," says Cage's character at one point, wiggling his fingers while pointing at his own head. This movie is kind of wacky, an effort to blend the heist genre with some dark comedy and suspense. It winds up being not wacky enough, not comedic enough, and not suspenseful enough to completely work.
This is the directorial debut of the Brewer brothers, Alex and Benjamin, and it's an interesting one from a pair who might someday find a distinctive voice. This borrows a lot from a genre that has plenty to borrow from, throws a pinch of Coen in the pot, and struggles to maneuver through some twists and turns and lead to a satisfyingly coherent denouement.
Aside from the birthday boy, who I'll write about in a bit, this also has the always-likable Elijah Wood and Jerry Lewis. Well, at least Jerry Lewis for about a minute and thirty-seven seconds. I'm not sure why Jerry Lewis needed to play Nicolas Cage's dad because nothing to do with that character or their relationship has anything to do with the story or its themes. This movie opens with Wood in a sex scene where he looks bored out of his mind and is fixated on a mole. For the first third of the film, I was fooled into thinking he would be the wacky character. But no, Wood was more of a foil.
Cage was subdued for the most part although the character is quirky enough to let that Nic we all know and love shine through. Our introduction to him has him splashing too much aftershave or cologne on himself. From there, we see him doing both honest ("This is a very interesting ashtray.") and dishonest work. The character doesn't really grow all that much, more because of the script than the performance. There were times when it seemed like the lines were written for a cheesy motivational speaker instead of a cop turning into a criminal. In fact, I'd love to have recordings of these to play whenever I'm not feeling motivated:
"Stay positive, dude." (with a lowered voice...and I love when Cage uses words like "dude")
"That's the spirit! You are a badass!"
"You're a positive thinker, and I respect you. And I fucking dig you."
"Whoo! Give it the goods!"
Additionally, he eats a lemon with Tabasco for no good reason, countdowns spectacularly in a way I might have to steal ("On 3. 3, 2, 1, 3!"), starts scatting after being amused at a gun seller's name (Bobo), looks extremely cool carrying towels and even spilling a tray of hamburgers, does this silly punching dance thing to impress some co-workers, makes a joke and then tells Wood that "JK," and makes a drill pun that he laughs hysterically at. And there's one scene where he puts white stuff on his nose that left me baffled. I didn't know if it was lotion or glue because it was never addressed. So odd.
My favorite Nic Cage moment in The Trust? It's a tie between these two:
--While eating a sandwich, he wheezes twice, starts to complain about how the restaurant has changed the recipe, and then suddenly announces that he approves.
--He speaks German, I assume poorly.
The Brewers did some interesting things with music here. It starts and ends with some string-heavy faux-funk music, but there was also a random country song that accompanied some of Cage's character's shenanigans, a lovely folk song by a female vocalist I couldn't identify ("Cricket" by Collie Ryan), and some classical stuff. There was also a song featuring the vocal stylings of Rod Rogers (one of the pseudonyms of song-poem guy Rodd Keith) that put a smile on my face. If you don't know that guy's work, look him up. I'm not in the business of helping you be lazy.
No comments:
Post a Comment