Pig shines a beacon on the triumph of good over evil
The plot of Nicolas Cage’s new movie Pig contains many twists and turns.
Living up in the north-west Pacific mountains, scraping a living finding truffles with his highly trained truffle pig, is not an easy life for Cage’s character Rob.
Good truffle pigs are a rare commodity, so when Rob’s super-sniffer is ‘pignapped’ in the middle of the night, he is understandably upset.
As the movie unfolds, we soon find out Rob is not a guy to mess with.
A bit like in the movie Taken, where Liam Neeson spends the movie trying to hunt down his daughter’s kidnappers, Rob will not take ‘no’ for an answer.
Determined to find the low-lifes who stole his beloved sow, he launches a full-on revenge attack, starting with some of his former contacts in the restaurant industry.
Once one of Portland, Oregon’s most celebrated chefs, Rob’s now looks more like a hirsute hobo than an impeccably attired cook.
His unkempt, dishevelled appearance is in stark contrast to truffle buyer Amir – Rob’s only human contact out in the wilderness – and the person he turns to in his time of need.
Dressed like an Armani-model and with a ‘sooped-up’ yellow sports car to match, Amir (Alex Wolff) is at first reluctant to get involved in Rob’s retribution.
But Rob is a bit like an angry hornet and once stirred up, can get very nasty.
It is only after some stern physical threats and damaging kicks to the car’s bodywork, that Amir agrees to take him into Portland to search for his beloved pig.
This is a very different type of movie to Cage’s normal fare – Hollywood blockbusters such as Face Off or Con Air.
It is more of an ‘indie flick’; jam-packed with dark, threatening undercurrents.
Throughout the film, Rob’s resentment and anger slowly increases, and deeper issues, such as his ‘simmering’ (pardon the pun) bitterness with the fine dining industry and its shallow and false image, come to the fore.
A good example of this is when he visits the restaurant of one of his former gastronomic students, who has now set up his own glamorous (and extremely expensive) high-class brasserie in the heart of the city.
Using his rich father’s influence, Amir manages to secure a table (it is normally booked out for months), and after ordering, Rob asks to speak to the chef.
The way Rob tears his former protege apart in front of his customers is a wonder to behold and sums up the quiet strength of this outwardly understated film.
Pig is showing at Luna Leederville from September 16.
By Mike Peeters
www.mikepeetersmedia.com.au
