by Joel Harley
On course for the worst night of his life, the Driver (Joel Kinnaman) is diverted from attending the birth of his child when an uninvited passenger hops into the back of the car, demanding a ride at gunpoint. The hitch? Said passenger is Nicolas Cage, going full throttle.
The one-of-a-kind star gives great Cage as the film’s sinister villain – a cross between Tom Cruise in Collateral and Al Pacino in The Devil’s Advocate. Cage freak-outs are to be expected at this point, but what the naysayers and the meme-makers fail to understand is that no two Cage rages are the same. The Passenger is an enjoyably nutty addition to the canon, ranting about tuna melts and shooting up an unsuspecting diner. But there’s an air of menace there, too, one which was lacking from, say, his Castor Troy or his Dracula. There are layers in his subtle Boston accent – and a tearful monologue which ends with an unexpected take on Hannibal Lecter’s ‘screaming lambs’ speech.
Director Yuval Adler keeps a firm hand on the wheel as Cage and Kinnaman gamely go at it, with writer Luke Paradise giving both stars plenty to chew on. Between them, the pair are well-matched, Kinnaman giving the same straight man bemusement as his Suicide Squad tough guy. Around them, the streets of Las Vegas throb with an apocalyptic sense of dread, all smoke and neon lights. It’s unexpectedly light on its feet, resisting the urge to give in to big action sequences or scene after scene of Cage making funny noises while wearing a fancy suit.
Sympathy For the Devil often zigs where one might expect a zag, bearing more in common with the star’s Bringing Out the Dead than his Drive Angry. Neither Cage’s fans nor his detractors will be shocked by this film or his performance in it, but the man’s talents are both devilishly employed and sneakily subverted.
Sympathy for the Devil is released in US cinemas on July 28th and screens at Pigeon Shrine FrightFest on August 27th.
