← Back to Reviews
in
Dying of the Light
Another deliciously unhinged performance from Nicolas Cage makes a 2014 action thriller called Dying of the Light worth a look.
Paul Schrader, the Oscar-nominated screenwriter of Taxi Driver wrote and directed this intense if improbable drama which features Cage playing Evan Lake, a semi-retired CIA agent who has contracted a specialized strain of Alzheimers that doesn't deter him when he receives intel regarding the location of a terrorist who tortured him 22 years ago. And because he is dying too, the CIA won't assist Lake in tracking the man down, but a disgraced junior agent, played by the late Anton Yelchin, does offer assistance and they are both off to Bucharest to find the guy.
Schrader surprises with a story that springs from a much larger canvas than we are expected from him. Schrader usually concentrates on more intimate yet equally intense character studies like Travis Bickle or Nick Nolte's tortured protagonist in Affliction but the straight 007 route is something new for Schrader, not to mention there are logistical and timeline inconsistencies here that make this whole thing a little hard to. As the film opens, we see Cage being tortured with no attempt to make him look younger, but we're supposed to believe that 22 years pass as he is now observed struggling with Alzheimers and lecturing future agents about how America is so screwed up since 9/11, not to mention that his superiors are trying to force him to retire. So we're supposed to accept Nicolas playing a character who has to be in his late 60's . at the least, flying to another country with little back up and no plan to get even with a terrorist.
It was also hard to believe that, even if they didn't want Lake to do this, once they learned what he was planning, that they would have offered some sort of assistance, but once Lake is off to Bucharest, the CIA is not heard from for the rest of the film. They weren't even concerned about the younger agent who agreed to help Lake. It was very troubling that the CIA showed no concern for what these guys were doing, even though we hear Lake being told early on in the film that "We take care of our down".
Schrader was provided a big budget for this and he utilizes it effectively, but the absurdities of the story just made it all kind of difficult to invest in. Cage does offer a bombastic performance in the starring role that demands attention (though , if the truth be told, even back in 2014, Cage was getting a little long in the tooth for action heroes like this one) and he gets surprisingly solid support from Yelchin, who again reminds us of what a loss to the industry his death was.
Another deliciously unhinged performance from Nicolas Cage makes a 2014 action thriller called Dying of the Light worth a look.
Paul Schrader, the Oscar-nominated screenwriter of Taxi Driver wrote and directed this intense if improbable drama which features Cage playing Evan Lake, a semi-retired CIA agent who has contracted a specialized strain of Alzheimers that doesn't deter him when he receives intel regarding the location of a terrorist who tortured him 22 years ago. And because he is dying too, the CIA won't assist Lake in tracking the man down, but a disgraced junior agent, played by the late Anton Yelchin, does offer assistance and they are both off to Bucharest to find the guy.
Schrader surprises with a story that springs from a much larger canvas than we are expected from him. Schrader usually concentrates on more intimate yet equally intense character studies like Travis Bickle or Nick Nolte's tortured protagonist in Affliction but the straight 007 route is something new for Schrader, not to mention there are logistical and timeline inconsistencies here that make this whole thing a little hard to. As the film opens, we see Cage being tortured with no attempt to make him look younger, but we're supposed to believe that 22 years pass as he is now observed struggling with Alzheimers and lecturing future agents about how America is so screwed up since 9/11, not to mention that his superiors are trying to force him to retire. So we're supposed to accept Nicolas playing a character who has to be in his late 60's . at the least, flying to another country with little back up and no plan to get even with a terrorist.
It was also hard to believe that, even if they didn't want Lake to do this, once they learned what he was planning, that they would have offered some sort of assistance, but once Lake is off to Bucharest, the CIA is not heard from for the rest of the film. They weren't even concerned about the younger agent who agreed to help Lake. It was very troubling that the CIA showed no concern for what these guys were doing, even though we hear Lake being told early on in the film that "We take care of our down".
Schrader was provided a big budget for this and he utilizes it effectively, but the absurdities of the story just made it all kind of difficult to invest in. Cage does offer a bombastic performance in the starring role that demands attention (though , if the truth be told, even back in 2014, Cage was getting a little long in the tooth for action heroes like this one) and he gets surprisingly solid support from Yelchin, who again reminds us of what a loss to the industry his death was.