Nicholas Cage is a bit of an oddity in the acting
world. He started out as a serious actor
and somehow ended up getting cast in cheesy action films where he just overacts
like there’s no tomorrow, and suddenly he’s a quirky nutball who can’t cut past
the tape his action film persona confines him to. Yet lo and behold, we get Joe, a serious drama starring Nicholas
Cage. And he’s still got the acting
chops, given that he has a good director to work with. And Joe
is well directed. It is a good
example of novelistic storytelling brought to the big screen, combining
literary motifs with cinematic aesthetics to make a damn good tale of finding a
way to do some good when all you’ve ever known is how to do wrong.
Cage takes on the role of Joe, an ex-convict who contracts
some guys to cut down trees during the day, and spends his nights by
himself. He drinks, smokes, and resorts
to hookers, but not really because he gets satisfaction out of any of them, and
not to abuse himself into a stupor. No,
this is self-medication. Joe is a
violent man, and he tries desperately not to be. Enter a 15 year old boy named Gary, a drifter
living with his family in a condemned house.
Gary wants to find work for him and his father, and though Gary is a hard
worker, his father is a drunk intent only on being lazy, blaming everybody else
for his shortcomings, and doing whatever it takes for his next drink. Joe sees this play out, and sees a kindred
spirit in the kid, acting as a friend where the kid has none. The events that follow are subtly dramatic
and at times shocking, and seeing Joe watch aspects of himself be reflected in
both Gary and his father is something to behold.
The performances in this film are fantastic demonstrations
of believably human characters acting in realistic ways while still acting as
thematic archetypes to portray a greater message. Cage’s subdued dramatic tones are usually a
result of bored underacting in a role he clearly doesn’t care about, but that’s
not what’s going on here. Joe is a
character that allows Cage to brood and sulk without having to be bored with
it, because the script shows there’s a lot more going on with Joe than any
single line of dialogue can demonstrate.
There’s depth to this character, and Cage knows how to run with it. The supporting cast does a great job of
providing on-screen chemistry for his performance, but Cage is really the one
who steals the show.
Unfortunately, the film is marred by some serious pacing
issues in the first half. It takes a whole
forty minutes to establish the main conflict of the film, and I think enough
background information and characterization could have been accomplished in
half the time. Much focus is put on
Joe’s job and Gary’s home situation, but it dwells on these things for too long
when it has already made its desired points.
I was frankly quite bored at first and didn’t quite see where the film
was going, and if I weren’t committed to writing these reviews, I might have
turned off the movie before it got past the establishment and into the actually
interesting plot.
However, when you get right down to it, Joe is still a pretty good movie.
It has a high bar of admission with some boring establishment taking up
way more of the film than it has any right to, but once you get past that
there’s a good film just waiting to be appreciated. The story is solid and the performances are
magnificent, particularly Cage’s. Give
this one a look if you see it around.
What’s your favorite Nicholas Cage movie? Let me know in the comments below.
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