Sympathy for the Devil

Plot

As the sun sets in Las Vegas, David’s wife goes into labor. When he arrives at the hospital to be there for her, a stranger gets into his car – holds him at gunpoint and tells him to ‘drive’.

The ‘Passenger’ then begins to play mind games with David, and as the night goes on he reveals he knows who David ‘really’ is.

Is the ‘Passenger’ correct? Is David who he says he is, or does he have a case of mistaken identity.

Direction

Dark, colourful and violent – there are some unique angles used due to the challenges of 75% of the film occurring within the confines of a car.

Either close shots within the car, or shots from outside the car pointing in are done effectively and are quite clever.

The diner attack later in the film is well choreographed, and is the centerpiece of the film. Some of the action here, including some slow-motion action, work well, and was needed following some fairly dialogue heavy scenes prior to this.

Cast/Characters

Nicolas Cage plays ‘The Passenger’. It takes a while for him to warm up to his usually ‘Cagey’ self. It felt as if he was almost ‘subdued’ at the start, but this changes once the diner scene begins.

Joel Kinnerman plays David, the unwilling pawn in the Passenger’s (plan?). While it seems, it was a creative choice, he too feels too lackadaisical for most of the film.

Without giving too much away, there is a scene ‘somewhere’ near the end that he gets a little more to do with his ‘range of emotions’

Screenplay/Setting/Themes

The ‘why’ of why Cage is in Kinnerman’s car is not revealed until the final fifteen minutes of the film, and prior to that told in a snippet of conversation that is broken up during a duration of the second half of the film.

I feel that the primary reveal of who each man is should have started earlier. This would have allowed for more time for the two men to be able to discuss this “development” more once ‘truth’ is revealed. I personally would have loved to see this, especially given how animated they become later on in proceedings.

Once the reveal has occurred, it makes some of the actions that occur prior to this a tad redundant too.

Overall

At a tight paced 90m, the second half of the film makes up for the first half. I was interested in seeing where this story was going to go, and the trailer (and Cage’s hair) made it seem it was going to have a supernatural element. I’m glad it did not. I was torn by the screenplay and that the reveal happens so late in the film.

By no means a bad Cage film, but it is not really a ‘good film’ too. Passable, and a recommend.

3/5