Pig – An Unbelievably Emotional Experience With Heart

2021 is weird.

So weird, in fact, that it’s easy to make such a statement as: Pig is one of Nicolas Cage’s best performances in decades, with complete confidence and without hesitation.

On paper, Pig sounds as if it is setting the viewer up to experience yet another semi-formulated straight-to-streaming Cage film, however, what results is a wonderful examination of a search for peace as a character is forced to reckon with his past. Not to mention the majority of the plot centering around the search for a pig.

Pig sees Cage’s character is Rob, a truffle hunter who uses one of his beloved pigs to search for these rare treasures in order to make a living by selling them to a young and ambitious vendor, Amir (Wolff). The relationship is fairly standard, revolving around supply and demand but is drastically upended as Rob’s prized pig is stolen setting in motion a chain of events that leads Rob on a search to reclaim what was taken. As Rob’s search takes him deeper and deeper into his past life, a life that he has completely walked away from, more and more layers are removed to reveal a man whose only recourse after experiencing a great loss was to remove himself completely from the equation. The loss of his pig helps to trigger these dormant emotions and draw him back into civilization.

As mentioned, Cage shows an incredible talent for tapping into a character that has both physically and emotionally shut himself off from the world. Every gesture or spoken word to someone takes on a feeling of physical pain or exhaustion because it’s clearly something Rob hasn’t or doesn’t want to do. Cage’s less is more approach is brilliant and the subtleties in his acting allow the viewer to become completely invested in his character, not because of his desperate search for a stolen pig, but because of the past life he’s left behind. Wolff’s Amir is the foil to this being a young bombastic character who is way out of his depth in a world that is highly unknown to him. This forces so many questions arise from these interactions throughout the film and what’s wonderful is that Pig does not hold the audience’s hand but instead allows them to connect the gaps of narrative as they are referenced or discussed.

Cage’s performance in Pig is similar to that of the entire film as Sarnoski utilizes a slower burning approach to reach the end of the narrative that culminates in such a beautiful scene in its final moments that it’s almost jarring. With many revenge-centric films, the audience has been so conditioned to expect violence that the decision to reach a conclusion by subverting that concept and instead choosing one of love was something that was unexpected and evolved into an emotionally intimate scene that must be experienced.

In the end, Pig is an unbelievably emotional experience that is well-crafted narratively, features pleasing cinematography, top-tier performances by its cast, and most importantly, offers a story complete with heart that quietly challenges and convicts its audience of their expectations based on its conclusion. Cage is exceptional in this film and should not be overlooked when reading the film’s logline or plot synopsis.

Pig is so much more and like I stated in the beginning…2021 is weird.

still courtesy of Neon

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Trying my best to get all thoughts about TV and Film out of my head and onto the interweb.