This is the one really great performance Cage has delivered since Matchstick Men, and Adaptation and others before it. It’s almost a throwback to his performance in Leaving Las Vegas, as he plays a pretty drug-riddled guy again with all sorts of problems, except this time there’s an added catch: he’s a police sergeant. But this is one of those unique aspects Cage can bring to a performance, especially the latter-day Nicolas Cage we’ve come to know. He can play a crazy person and play off the crazy persona that he’s fostered for himself in recent years. But he doesn’t do it with a special kind of intensity that makes it seem like he’s eccentric but successful, the way someone like Tom Cruise likes to play. He comes off as someone who is an all-out mess. And in this case, we get to see things from his perspective, and this does not disappoint, featuring weird hallucinations and general madness. This is the last known example of Cage using his talent for good.
Continue reading on the next page…
Published: Apr 9, 2013 11:14 pm