WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Pig, now in theaters.
It’s safe to say Nicolas Cage has one of the most storied Hollywood careers. He’s gone from winning a Best Actor Oscar for Leaving Las Vegas to being box-office gold in numerous action flicks such as Con Air, The Rock and Face/Off, which made him a ’90s star. But he’s also showed range in family movies such as National Treasure to remind fans he can mix it up. However, it’s his recent movies, from Mandy to Color Out of Space and Willy’s Wonderland that have a bit of everything — horror included — that truly paint a kooky filmography.
With The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent out next year, where Cage plays himself to save his family from a deranged fan, it seems like he’s going to be trolling audiences, but it’s actually his most heartbreaking role in Pig that acts as his biggest troll job yet.
The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent is straight-up Cage and shouldn’t come as a surprise that he’s doing this in the evolution and twilight of his career. In this movie, he’ll have to portray his past roles at a birthday party in order to get his loved ones back, but again, making fun of his career, both the ups and downs, feels right up his alley at this point.
In Pig, though, as he plays a heartbroken chef, Rob, he speaks to the audience a lot more, taking not-so-subtle jabs at their critiques. It first arises when Alex Wolff’s Amir is skeptical about letting a raggedy, dirty Rob into his Lamborghini so they can head into Portland to find Rob’s missing pig. Rob makes it clear that fancy clothes and cars mean nothing — love does. At that point, it appears he’s just clinging to the pig as it filled the gap left behind by his departed wife, Lori, but it deepens later on.
When they track down a chef at a fancy restaurant, he turns out to be someone Rob mentored during his heyday as one of America’s most elite restauranteurs. However, Rob isn’t impressed and asks the man about the concept, dissecting how cosmetic and pandering it is. Rob indicates that he fired the man years ago as the guy’s dream was opening an English pub, curating it with his style. Rob reminds him this new place isn’t that and he just catered to the in-crowd to produce something rudimentary, generic and unfulfilling. The honesty in this epiphany brings the man to tears and motivates Amir to be his own man too.
It feels like this is Cage talking about big studios and audiences lapping up superficial content as he tries to inspire the cook to follow his dream. He lectures him in a meta moment, reminding him that what critics and audiences think ultimately means nothing; all that matters is the artist’s ambition and following their heart so that they do what makes them happy.
The bait-and-switch comes full-circle when Rob finds out that Amir’s dad took the pig. Rob gives Amir a list, but while it seems like it’s a list of weapons for a revenge quest a la John Wick, it’s actually a list of ingredients. Rob wants to cook a meal to cure Darius of his anger, surprising Amir who was sure Rob would want violence. It’s a middle finger to those who’d want meaningless bloodshed, harkening back to the fight club earlier where Rob takes a licking to earn money.
It feels like Cage is speaking through Rob, indicating that no matter how much fans beat him down, he’ll get back up. And ultimately, that fight club tricks us into thinking Rob is caging a beast, waiting to unleash on Darius. However, while Cage’s past and future characters would endorse such a brand of vengeance, the endearing, hopeless romantic in Rob dupes us. He’s there to remind fans that loss, love and grief don’t necessarily need rage to heal — just forgiveness.
See Nicolas Cage’s dramatic turn in Pig, now playing in limited theatrical release and available on VOD.
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