‘Sympathy For the Devil’ brings us a terrific Nicolas Cage performance that will make crowds roar with applause and laughter as he is pitch perfect in it. Joel Kinnaman plays the victim of Nicholas Cage’s demented character being forced to drive all around the town to take the passenger to his destination. While this sounds like a familiar premise, the acting and directing help set this movie apart from others. The thing that makes this movie interesting in the beginning is when we first see The Passenger, he’s all in red including a red hair dye, making it seem tongue in cheek that he may well be the devil.
After being forced to drive a mysterious passenger at gunpoint, a man finds himself in a high-stakes game of cat and mouse where it becomes clear that not everything is as it seems.
Synopsis
While Nicolas Cage is at an all time high with being over-the-top in ‘Sympathy for the Devil’ Joel Kinnaman brings it down to earth with his reactions and gravitas towards his performance that surprisingly has a lot of range to it. The way Joel uses his eyes to act in this movie while Nicolas Cage uses his mouth, and his physicality is a perfect match for the actors on screen to compel the audience. Yuval Adler does an exceptional job juggling the elements of the film with the fast lace talking Nicolas Cage and the subtle performance from Joel Kinnanman, along with the action and dark comedic tones.
The screenplay by Luke Paradise is great and you got to think the role of the passenger was tailored to Nicolas Cage, this will continue Nic’s transcendence into becoming a cult genre film hero that has helped redefine his career since ‘Mandy’ ‘Sympathy for the Devil’ will please fans of Nicolas Cage’s movies over the past decade. The overall of the film may not be groundbreaking itself; it’s a hell of a great time to toss your brain at the door and have popcorn fun for ninety minutes.
Overall Grade: 4/5 Stars
