Sympathy For The Devil (2023)

You are not in for a good time if you park up somewhere and end up with someone sliding into the back of your car and telling you to drive. Things would be more tense if you were due to join your wife while she was in the throes of labour. And it would really be mad if that passenger was a red-haired Nicolas Cage. Don’t worry though. You are unlikely to be put in this situation. Joel Kinnaman is though, and this film is all about his fateful encounter with an unwanted passenger who seems convinced that he is someone else entirely. Is Cage right? Is he human? Will Kinnaman survive this car ride and reunite with his family?

Directed by Yuval Adler, Sympathy For The Devil is a fun thriller that is elevated by Cage being perfectly cast in a role that allows him to deliver the kind of fun and quirky performance that fans often love. It may not be in line with the previous films helmed by Adler, from what I can surmise, but it’s certainly in line with a number of great Cage films.

Writer Luke Paradise probably couldn’t believe his luck when the leads were cast. His script is good, especially for a film-writing debut, but it’s far from perfect, and every piece of dialogue is improved by the leads delivering it. It’s just a shame that the actual destination doesn’t feel as enjoyable as the journey, making the finale a bit hard to care about, especially when it means the ultimate end of such a great and tense dynamic between the two main characters.

Cage is an absolute blast, and seems to know that this is a perfect role for him, but Kinnaman ensures that he plays off him perfectly, channeling his inner John Hawkes as he personifies a mix of nerves and apparent bad luck. Others appear onscreen occasionally, with Alexis Zollicoffer a highlight as a friendly/sassy diner waitress, but the film generally stays tightly focused on Cage and Kinnaman. Talk about playing to your strengths.

I would have like just a bit more here, wishing the film had gone even darker and possibly stayed more ambiguous in the third act, but what we get is a lot of fun. The technical side of things is all on point, and the visuals are accompanied by a perfectly complementary score from Ishai Adar, and those who see the trailer for this, or read a plot summary, and think they will like it, shouldn’t be disappointed by the end result.

8/10

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