Pig

Pig
Starring Nicolas Cage, Alex Wolff, Adam Arkin, Nina Belforte
Directed by Michael Sarnoski

Remember when Nicolas Cage was a respected, Oscar-winning actor in Hollywood, with titles like "Leaving Las Vegas," "Face/Off," "The Rock," and "Con Air" under his belt? Those days seem so far away with the Cage everyone knows and loves today - the meme-tastic actor who signs up for any direct-to-streaming movies that come his way, and the more eccentric and crazy the better. "Mandy," "Willy's Wonderland," and "Color Out of Space" more define his personality now, as a crazy man who spends most of his airtime screaming and shouting, and something that he himself pokes fun at, especially in the upcoming "The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent," where he plays...Nicolas Cage. So when word came that he would star in a movie called "Pig," where he's a hermit living in the woods with just his truffle pig as company - and when said pig gets kidnapped - you'd expect him to go all John Wick insane trying to get him back. Instead, in a truly shocking turn of events, "Pig" is more of a dramatic piece that Cage was once known for decades ago, a performance that's already earned him a Critics' Choice nomination and is on the shortlist for both the SAG and the Academy Awards.

Robin Feld (Nicolas Cage) was once a respected chef in Portland, Oregon, before he gave it all up and moved into the forest with just his truffle pig he named Pig to live in solitude and isolation. Fifteen years later, he's making a modest income by selling truffles to young upstart Amir (Alex Wolff), who drives a fancy car and always dresses to the nines, a polar opposite to Robin's way of living. One night people break into Robin's shack, beat him up, and steal his truffle pig. Bent on getting him back, he relies on his photogenic memory and Amir's car to take him to Portland, where he follows the small leads he finds through the seedier underbelly of the restaurant business as he desperately seeks his pig, resulting in a journey of self-discovery, love, loss, and life.

"Pig" is one of those rare films where it's extremely hard to pinpoint what it's really about, and it could be due to Nicolas Cage's recent string of films. People were expecting it to be a wild John Wick revenge film where he barrels through armies of baddies to get his beloved Porky back, and if that's what you expect going in, you'll tune out in the first twenty minutes. It's not that at all, and there's hardly any action to be seen. Rather, it's a man's anguished search for the one other living thing in his life, and the great lengths he'll go to be reunited with it. It's deeply dramatic, deeply personal, and deeply an introspective look at not just Cage's character, but Alex Wolff's as well, leading to a uniquely mismatched pair that are both remarkably well-written and acted, giving Cage his best performance in the last decade.

Robin is a man full of pain and hurt, as is expressed merely in his expressions, not to mention his quiet resolve and hobo outfits, and even when he gets beaten up early in the film, he wanders around Portland with the wounds and blood still on his face, and it seems like no one notices (in a very polarizing scene, he and Wolff's Amir are in a high-scale all-white restaurant while he's sitting in his same clothes he's been wearing, unshaven beard, unkempt hair, and bloody face). While this would be used as a moment before Robin pulls out some pistols from under the table, flips it, and turns the white linens red with blood, none of that happens. Instead he has a talk with the sous chef - whom worked for Robin years ago for only two months before he was fired, as Robin recalls - and wonders why he settled for having this upscale restaurant instead of the pub he dreamed of operating. Strangely, while Robin is on his own journey, he serves as a Buddhist-style philosopher who waxes poetic and philosophic, discussing everything from the meaning of life to what'll happen to Portland once an earthquake hits. As his journey continues, he runs into friends and enemies, all the while maintaining this strange sense of calm despite his harsh words, but you can see it's all bubbling to the surface that'll be unleashed in one of two ways - either with mass vengeance, or willful acceptance, if he doesn't manage to find his pig - and there's nothing in-between. Here, Nicolas Cage once again proves that he won't do anything halfway, but dive all in with any project he tackles, and here the film is all the better for it, as no one else could've pulled off such an incomprehensible story with such real, raw emotions.

On the other end of the coin there's Alex Wolff's Amir, a man who's the closest thing Robin has to a friend, and he's not really even that: he's the one who buys the truffles from Robin, and sells them for a profit. Without Robin's truffles, he has nothing, and he knows it. So despite constantly butting heads with him, Amir sticks with him in his uniquely personal journey. Amir is a man with something to prove, and not just to his wealthy father, but to himself as well. He sports fancy clothes, drives a fancy car, and lives in a fancy apartment, but you sense that it's all a facade, as there's something deeper in his soul that's longing for something more, and he just wishes he was stupid enough to believe that he has everything he wants. He doesn't, and just as important as Robin's journey is, Amir's is just as important and life changing. He doesn't want to take Robin to the big city because that's where he does business, and it's like a kid who doesn't want his parents coming with him to school because he's ashamed. Yet Amir still needs Robin, and Robin needs Amir, and this pairing is divinely inspired by screenwriter and director Michael Sarnoski.

"Pig" is a unique film in that it far exceeds people's expectations of what Nicolas Cage has been known for recently, a film that's wholly a character study for its main characters and a journey of self-discovery and understanding the universal lessons that life throws at you.

The Score: A+