Beauty is in the eye of the beholder and the adage applies to not only a person’s love for their pet as in Nicolas Cage’s syncopation with his truffle pig, but also my adoration for Cage’s acting career. Sure, his choices haven’t been ‘pretty’ at times, yet when he delivers a performance such as Pig as the former renowned chef Robin, or Bad Lieutenant’s Port of Call: New Orleans, or Adaptation you can’t help but be in love with Cage’s beautiful genius.
Pig is almost flawless. Only a bit of bloat at the beginning (though even this could be defended to set up Cage’s solitary existence in the Portland woods) is the only very minor trouble. Besides that, every performance is perfectly nuanced, Alex Wolff as the spoiled rich kid, Adam Arkin as the workaholic, self-medicating grieving father, Darius Pierce as the fight club boss Edgar and David Knell as the pretentious geeky chef, and of course, the aforementioned acting God, Nicolas Cage.
Pig is also a lesson in screenwriting, lean dialogue and lean plot by director Michael Sarnoski and Vanessa Block, two relatively new feature film folks that are surely here to stay. They realize that nuanced performances with gorgeous music (from Mozart to Springsteen) equals an emotional evocative film.
Pig is my favorite film of the year thus far.
A “Pig”‘s Pulchritude
