Sympathy For The Devil Review: Nicolas Cage Does His Nicolas Cage Thing In This Underwhelming Thriller
This piece was written during the 2023 WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes. Without the labor of the writers and actors currently on strike, the movie being reviewed here wouldn't exist.
There are two types of Nicolas Cage movies. There are legitimately good films that remind us he's a genuinely good, even great, actor — films like "Mandy" and "Pig." And then there's everything else. We're talking smaller films in which Cage and his wacko performance are usually the only interesting things to grab hold of. "Sympathy For the Devil" is more the latter than the former. No one is going to accuse this of being one of Cage's better films, but it is a good delivery system for Cage's usual wild man antics. He's once again given free rein to do what he wants, and what he wants to do, at least here, is to go off the deep end.
Which is fine! It's fun to watch Nicolas Cage do his Nicolas Cage thing. Recently he did it in the otherwise lackluster "Renfield," where he got to play Dracula. In "Sympathy For the Devil," he's still in Dracula mode, although this is like Dracula with a gun and a bad Boston accent. Cage is a sinister force here, prone to bugging his eyes out of his skull, gritting his teeth, and yelling at anyone who dares to interrupt him. Sporting a questionable goatee and bright red hair that matches the color of his jacket, Cage is an unnamed figure who appears out of the darkness of night and unleashes chaos wherever he goes.
'I wanted to be 100% sex tonight'
It's late at night in Las Vegas. A driver (Joel Kinnaman, helpless to do much in the presence of Cage's wild performance) cruises through the darkness, over highways and past brightly lit casinos. His destination: the hospital. His pregnant wife, who is already at said hospital, is about to give birth, and he's almost there, ready to become a father again (the couple already have a son). But nothing is going to go according to plan on this night. As soon as Kinnaman's character arrives at the hospital, a man climbs into his backseat.
This is Cage's character, and Cage starts things off somewhat subdued. Don't worry, that won't last very long. At gunpoint, he orders the driver to drive, and the two head back out into the night, cruising down one empty road after the next headed towards an unknown destination. And as they drive, Cage's character grows more irate, enabling the actor to dial up the craziness to 11. He's prone to outbursts and threats and there appears to be a thin layer of sweat constantly slicking his forehead.
As is usually the case with these sorts of movies, Cage is committed to making things interesting. The film enables him to yell things like "I think you broke my beautiful nose!" He also talks about golden showers, says "I wanted to be 100% sex tonight!", does a bad Edward G. Robinson impression, and admits: "I've never been happy. You know why? Sinuses." It's another Cage performance on a completely different wavelength, as if he's an alien beamed down to interact with us hapless humans.
The fires of hell
Where is all this leading? It's impossible to watch "Sympathy For the Devil" and not think of the far superior "Collateral," in which another killer forces a man to drive him around throughout the night. It probably doesn't help that "Collateral" is a much, much better movie. Still, there's more than meets the eye here. Is this a random event? Is the driver a man at the wrong place at the wrong time? Or is there something else going on? The driver doesn't seem particularly shocked when a man with a gun climbs into his car, and his behavior as they cruise about is suspicious. Do these characters know each other, perhaps?
Cage and Kinnaman eventually end up at a neon-lit diner, a change of scenery from the car that once again permits Cage to go haywire, screaming about tuna melts and harassing anyone who is unlucky enough to be a customer that night. This eventually gives way to a raging fire in the parking lot, bathing the screen in harsh orange-yellow light that makes the scenery look like the characters are trapped in the fires of hell. And when things aren't lit by flames, the digital night photography imparts a lonely, empty feeling. Director Yuval Adler brings a certain amount of style to the proceedings, but so much of the movie is set in a car that the mise en scène of it all begins to look drab and empty. Perhaps that's the point. But it doesn't do the film any favors.
Plenty of gonzo Cage moments
Outside of a few bursts of graphic violence and some admittedly interesting twists and turns, "Sympathy For the Devil" is ultimately too drab for its own good. Michael Mann can make driving around at night compelling with "Collateral," but this isn't a Michael Mann movie. It is a Nicolas Cage movie, though. If you're a Cage megafan who thrills to watch the actor work his "nouveau shamanism" acting style, there are plenty of gonzo Cage moments to keep you entertained.
But that's not enough for an entire movie. Cage can only do so much on his own, and as you watch "Sympathy For the Devil," you start to wish the film could come just a tiny bit closer to his style. It doesn't help that Kinnaman fails to add much since the script requires him to mostly looked surprised and say very little. You can drop Nic Cage in your dull movie all you want, but when you do, you're only getting a memorable Cage performance in an otherwise unmemorable story. I love to watch Cage work. I just wish I didn't have to watch him work under these conditions.
/Film Rating: 5 out of 10