Nicolas Cage takes another turn as a nut job of uncommon intensity in Sympathy for the Devil, a movie that, for much of its 90-minute running time, finds Cage’s character in a car with Joel Kinnaman’s David. Listed as The Passenger, Cage's character holds David hostage as they drive to a purported reunion between The Passenger and his fatally ill mother. As it turns out, The Passenger knows about David’s suburban life and threatens his family, including the pregnant wife David was on his way to join when the movie opens. She's in the hospital, having gone into labor. The Passenger force David to take a road trip, all the while bullying and badgering the poor guy. Suggestions that David may not be an unlucky rando percolate throughout. A violent scene at a roadside diner takes the comic edge off director Yuval Adler’s rendition of Luke Paradise’s screenplay and squanders some of its credibility, as well. Cage’s performance feels familiar and so does much of the movie, which seems to have been form fitted for Cage. At one point, The Passenger struts his way through a rendition of I Love the Nightlife, but Cage and Kinnaman can’t “boogie” their way out of a movie that doesn’t always emerge from the shadow of earlier efforts. Strange, no? When it comes to movies, the weird seems well on its way to becoming commonplace.
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