Nicholas Cage does so much awful work these days that it was quite a surprise last year to see this low budget, independent film shoot to the top of critics’ charts. After learning about its premise, I was disinclined to like this, worried that it would be mostly about watching one or more animals suffer. As it turned out, this film isn’t really about the pig at all and is a lot more like John Wick than I ever imagined, albeit in a radically different direction. It sure is an interesting and creatively impressive film but it has as little to do with real cooking and food as John Wick has with real combat.
Rob is a hermit who lives alone in the woods with his pet pig and forages for truffles. His sole point of contact with civilization is Amir, a young man who buys his truffles in exchange for the supplies he needs. One night a pair of assailants knock Rob out and steal his pig. With Amir’s help, he finds out that the two are local poachers and drug addicts but they claim they have already delivered the pig to a rich man in the city. Rob forces Amir to take him to the city, which turns out to be Portland, and tap his contacts in the restaurant suppliers’ industry to find the pig. Amir is shocked to learn that Rob is something of a legend in the food scene in Portland despite retiring some 15 years ago. He was once the most celebrated chef in the city and the mere mention of his name to people in the know is enough to shake things up and get things done. From the different people they meet, Amir gradually pieces together a picture of how Rob secluded himself after the death of his wife Lori.
The opening scenes of Nicholas Cage tramping about the woods with the pig, played by a real pig and not CGI, are lovely but, alas, don’t last for very long and it wouldn’t be much of a film then. One of the first things Rob does when they get to the city is to force his way into what looks like an underground fight club and one can see how this film could pivot into a more conventional and therefore boring direction. Thankfully this never turns into an action movie and yet it still is surprisingly similar to John Wick as Rob gets his way not through violence but by being something like a god of cookery. His food is so good that they are apparently life-changing experiences and he claims to be able to remember everyone he has ever served and every dish he has ever cooked. His stature and reputation is such that the head chef of the trendiest haute cuisine restaurant in the city is reduced to a blubbering mess when confronted with the full force of his personality and judgment while Amir looks on agog at the monster he has unwittingly unleashed.
This kind of film is always entertaining and tremendously fun, especially when the arena of competition is a non-conventional one. But it is of course ludicrous. I’m amused that it posits the existence of some shadowy underworld of restaurant workers who operate by their own codes of behavior like in some Chinese martial arts films. On the other hand, the film consistently pushes a serious tone, rightfully so given that the loss of a beloved family member is no laughing matter. But it is hard to take the film seriously at times as Rob is just too otherworldly to be a real person and how everyone reacts to him is just too exaggerated. Cage’s acting really makes it all work as he is straight-faced even when he goes on a rant about how Portland will be completely destroyed by floods and the eruption of Mount Hood. He conveys hidden depths to his character in that you feel sympathetic for his loss but you also understand why someone like him belongs by himself in the woods.
On the whole I really enjoyed this and it’s a good reminder of what Cage can be capable of him. Apparently the actor himself has stated that this is the favorite film of his career. However I feel that it skirts the edge of credulity too much for me to rate it as highly as some critics have. This is impressive work as the debut of its director Michael Sarnoski who also wrote the story but I feel like elements like the underground fight club are misleading distractions from what the film is really trying to do. Still it’s a very interesting film and it makes the director someone worth keeping an eye on.