SYMPATHY FOR THE DEVIL - Mark Reviews Movies

Sympathy for the Devil, RLJE Films

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Review by Mark Dujsik | July 27, 2023

Nicolas Cage can be subtle, but he's also one of the few actors who's genuinely unafraid to dive into a role with wild abandon. Sympathy for the Devil sees Cage at or near the peak of that second quality, as he plays a ruthless sociopath with a dark past, a darker present set of behaviors, and a gleeful disregard for human life.

This is the sort of performance that's impossible to ignore, and it's either the most intriguing element of an unexceptional minimalistic thriller or an unfortunate distraction from what might have otherwise been a pretty competent one. That's the main problem here: Cage's performance sticks out so much that's difficult to pay attention to or care about everything else going on in this story. It might be a notable piece of over-the-top acting, which is saying something when it involves the subject of Cage, but it's simply not the right mode for this particular movie.

The story is about as simple as it can be. Cage plays a man credited only as "the Passenger," and even when we do learn his true identity, its only description is that of a different generic role. The only thing that matters here is that this man comes seemingly out of nowhere, interrupts someone's life in the middle of what should be one of his happiest moments, and wreaks all sorts of havoc over the course of a night through and on the highways outside of Las Vegas.

His target is a man who insists that his name is one thing, while the Passenger is certain that it's another. We'll go along with the credits yet again and refer to this guy, played by Joel Kinnaman, as "the Driver." That is, after all, almost exclusively what the man does for most of the movie—first while trying to reach the hospital in time to witness his wife give birth to their second child and after while being forced to chauffer the Passenger out of Vegas and toward Boulder City.

The Passenger has a plan for himself, the Driver, or both of them, and Luke Paradise's screenplay the keeps that plan, the two characters' backgrounds, and the Passenger's motive for abducting the Driver at gunpoint a secret. The Passenger even makes a note of the intentional restraint, joking that he doesn't want to spoil any sense of surprise too early.

Barring even a hint of what's happening and why it's happening here doesn't leave us with much with which to connect. Apart from the tease of the mystery itself and, of course, the high-wire act that is Cage's performance, that is.

With hot red hair that matches his sport coat and his generally demented demeanor, one might start to wonder if the title is intended to be taken more literally than the simplistic setup suggests (In addition to pistol, the Passenger introduces himself with a card trick, as if the guy possibly could read minds or foretell the future). His manic attitude is one thing, as Cage suddenly and without warning erupts into yelling. The severity of his threats against the Driver's family and the jokey way he considers killing random people—and actually does so—in order stay on course or get his hostage's attention point toward something almost unnaturally evil.

The inherent, unpredictable menace of the Passenger is obviously meant to elicit a constant degree of suspense. That must be the point, since most of the story amounts to two men talking about little in particular, while circling around the answers to the mystery at the center of the plot, and repeating the same evasive, riddle-like dialogue. Eventually, we learn that the Passenger is convinced the Driver is a man the former once knew back in Boston, when the Passenger and that guy were part of an organized crime ring. It's not until much later that the dialogue becomes much clearer, twisting and turning its way toward a couple of solutions that might have actually served as a more solid foundation for tension.

Instead, director Yuval Adler appears to count on the mercurial manner and mannerisms of Cage's performance to accomplish that. Considered in isolation, the idea is a sound one. Against the background of the interior of the car—as well as roadside diner where the Passenger displays the extent and limits of the danger he poses—and juxtaposed with Kinnaman's reserved performance, both the character of the Passenger and Cage's work seem completely out of place in Sympathy for the Devil, though. It mostly leaves us to wonder if the movie surrounding him is worthwhile in any other way.

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