I’m not sure if I am hitting a bit of a lull in my Nicolas Cage interest now that I’m past the halfway mark, or if the overall quality of the movies is just on the wane. But I’ve watched the next four (movies #60-63) already and none of them are exceptional (or even that memorable) in my opinion. 

None of them are terrible–yes, often outlandish and over-the-top unbelievable at times–but not “unwatchable”. When I read about each film’s “critical reception” that, too, seems mixed. I keep waiting to see the “Direct to Video” label next to each title because I know Nicolas Cage does start to release more movies that skip the theaters completely in the 2000s, but that hasn’t quite happened yet either. 

So I feel like I’m in this weird “meh” period of an otherwise very intriguing actor’s career. If there’s a theme here, it’s that Cage has entered the realm of the thriller / action movie genre. Good buys being forced to do bad things. 

It starts with a peaceful-husband-turned-vigilante movie, then goes into a home invasion, then a reprisal of his Ghost Rider role, and ends with a kidnapping / ransom movie. 

But we’ll take them one day, one blog at a time…

The World According to Seeking Justice

Films often like to tap into the audience’s most fear-based hypothetical ethical questions: “What would you do if…?” I remember when I was young there was this movie Indecent Proposal where the characters were posed with such an ethical dilemma: would you let someone sleep with your wife, for say, a million dollars? (Oddly enough, this sounds similar to the situation in Honeymoon in Vegas.) These hypothetical situations seem highly unlikely, but also touch upon the nerve of what someone values and at what price. 

In Seeking Justice (2011) the hypothetical question posed by the film is, “If someone brutally assaulted and raped your spouse / someone you loved, what would be willing to do to receive justice or even vengeance upon this assailant?” Would you trust the legal system to find and punish? Or if you could mete out your own form of justice (and not get caught) would you do it, even if you had to compromise your own ethics or values?

The premise itself is interesting, and in our violent world, unfortunately, the situations presented are not all that improbable, when we see in the media so many innocent people gunned down in the streets (or schools), and when there are so many victims of domestic violence, serial killers, and pedophiles.

In Seeking Justice Will Gerard (Nicolas Cage) must face this ethical dilemma and question of taking vengeance vs. seeking justice. He is a high school English teacher whose wife, Laura (January Jones), is brutally raped and beaten one night while alone. At the hospital Will is approached by a stranger “Simon” (Guy Pierce) who makes an offer from a “few citizens who are seeking justice” as people who “love this city and are tired of seeing it go to hell”. 

His offer is to kill the man who did this to Laura before the criminal justice system can apprehend and try him. How does he know who did this to Laura? (We’re not sure). Why is he making the offer to Will in the first place? Simon is part of a secret society that asks its members to do an unspecified favor in the future for the service being provided today. (We scratch. You scratch…lay-away. Yeah, it’s sus.) Why would Will even consider such a devil’s bargain in the first place? (Well, because 1. He’s a caring husband who is powerless to enact his own justice, and 2. Simons says Laura would have to relive her trauma for many, many months if the assailant is captured and taken to trial.) So, in the midst of his own trauma-by-proxy, Will falls for Simon’s argument and agrees to let him “take care of his problem” as the more expeditious solution to seeking justice (at least in theory.)

Reluctantly, Will signs on to this questionable favor-for-a-favor transaction (think Hitchcock’s Strangers on a Train) by following Simon’s prompts (i.e. buying two specific candy bars from the hospital vending machine within the hour) which sets events into motion quickly. 

Laura’s rapist is hunted down and shot in his home by another (assumed) favor-receiver-turned-vigilante who uses the “secret society” catchphrase (“The hungry rabbit jumps”) afterwards. Simon then delivers a photo of the dead man along with a necklace (stolen from Laura when she was assaulted) to Will, as proof that the deal has been sealed (so to speak). Simon tells Will they will be in touch later to make good on “his favor”. 

Some time passes as Laura heals from her wounds and Will returns to his work as a mild-mannered school teacher. Laura wants a gun for protection, but Will doesn’t agree they should have one in their home. Laura goes behind his back and gets lessons at a firing range. 

The favor is all but forgotten until Simon shows up one day with an assignment for Will–a means to pay back his debt. Will is ordered to follow a woman and her children to the zoo and notify Simon if a particular man shows up. The man, who is related to the woman and children, is an alleged pedophile. Failing to find the man at the zoo, Will is later told he will meet him at a particular overpass where he must push him off to make the murder look like an accident. Will instead tries to speak to the man, but the man suspects Will is there to harm him (and hilariously throws his bike at him.)

The two wrestle with each other as Will tries to talk to the man (whose name is later revealed to be Alan Marsh) and Alan ends up falling over the railing anyway to his death. 

Will is later apprehended by the police who suspect him in Marsh’s murder and we soon discover that Marsh was not a pedophile after all, but an investigative journalist looking into Simon’s secret society of “hungry rabbits jumping”. As the story unfolds, Will realizes that he is caught up in something much bigger than a “few people seeking justice” as there are policeman, other journalists, and even his good friend and boss at the school (the principal) who are all a part of the grand secretary society and its practices.

And then…

Nah, you don’t really need to know the rest of this movie do you? It’s pretty standard. 

Of course Will and his wife end up turning the tables on Simon and the others who are part of the jumping rabbits group. The only twist of course is at the end, when Simon and his cronies are all dead at the hands of Will / Laura, Will attempts to bring publicity to the conspiracy. He shares Marsh’s research with the editor of the New Orleans Post who seems to also be part of the group (since he knows the catchphrase). 

Interesting Odds & Ends  

Overall, I thought this movie was pretty meh. Cage gives his typical all, but the role and the storyline are just too boilerplate and milquetoast to venture into the noteworthy. We’ve all seen this movie before in some format and this film does little to blaze a new creative path or re-imagine an old idea. So here’s a few odds and ends that I did jot down while watching it.

• Nicolas Cage looks like a bad Lin-Manuel Miranda impersonator in this movie with his goatee and balding-on top longer on the sides haircut. It does fit the English teacher vibe for sure, but man, what a nerdy look for him.
• January Jones is not an actor I’ve seen in many films, but the role I always think about for her is Last Man on Earth starring Will Forte. Perhaps because her character was in a relationship with a fat mustached man named Todd in that series. 
• Guy Pierce is an actor that I like, but I don’t see in a lot of films. I thought he was great in Memento.
• Thematically, this movie has elements of Fight Club, Pay it Forward, and The Dark Knight Rises, but it doesn’t really accrete towards the best parts of any of these. 
• Will’s character has to buy two Forever bars from the vending machine in order to set the deal into motion. This is a bit on the nose isn’t it? You are indebted to us “forever” with this deal. I think I would have paused to consider that bit of symbolism if it was me. 
• The twist in this one made me laugh. Will’s principal and best friend, Jimmy (Will Perrineau) is in the jumping rabbit vengeance cult and had some knowledge of Will’s involvement. What are the odds that two employees of this same inner city high school would both be part of this cabal? 
• Say NO to NOLA. Nicolas Cage movies that are set in New Orleans are some of my least favorites (with one exception: Bad Lieutenant Port of Call New Orleans). Examples: Zandalee, Sonny, Stolen. What is it about the “big easy” that just doesn’t work with Nicky? I don’t know. It should work, but it doesn’t.

Firsts for Nicolas Cage as Will Gerard

• Wearing a mask for Mardi Gras in New Orleans
• English teacher in an inner city high school
• Playing chess (and losing)
• Married to a cellist
• Has a bicycle thrown at him
• Punches a student
• Attends an Irish wake at Telly’s pub (for a person he happened to accidentally kill)
• Hiding under a freeway overpass
• Breaking into a newspaper printing plant
• At a monster truck show
• In a big shootout in an abandoned mall

Recurrences

• In New Orleans (Zandalee, Sonny, Bad Lieutenant: PoCNE)
• Teacher (Knowing)
• Giving his wife an anniversary gift (The Family Man)
• Buying (or attempting) to buy from a vending machine (The Weather Man)
• Playing pool (Multiple)
• Arrested and photoed with mug shot (Multiple)
• Making use of a storage unit (Lord of War)

Quotable

“Ah, c’mon. We love New Orleans. Who dat?”

“Guess what? If you applied yourself half as much to class as you do scamming the school, you could accomplish anything.”

“Set ‘em up, asshole.”

“We’re not keeping a gun in this house. No guns.”

“I’m not touching you. I’m guiding you.”

“NO! YOU’RE SIMON’S FRIEND! YOU TELL ME HIS FUCKIN’ NAME!”

Desperately Seeking Justice

Guy Pierce is not Guy Richie, but I often get the two confused. Guy Richie dated Madonna once who was in a movie called Desperately Seeking Susan. Nicolas Cage is desperately Seeking Justice in this film in which his character’s name is Will. Will is also the real-life name of Will’s best friend / betrayer in the movie (Jimmy), Will Perrineau. Will P played Michael in the TV series, Lost! If you are slightly “lost” in these apparently unrelated and highly suspect connections, you are not alone.

This movie left me feeling the same way. What was the ultimate point of this group of “justice seekers” and their pay-it-forward plot that caused more harm than good. Was the whole point to punish those who wanted vengeance not justice? Was the whole thing orchestrated to hide something else completely? Something about this reeks of QANON to me. Nothing really lined up or pointed to some bigger conspiracy. Just a bunch of b.s. that ultimately got a bunch of people killed for no reason. Not really sure what the point of any of it was. And even worse, I’m not sure that I actually care. That’s the main problem with this movie. It leaves you not really caring much about what you just watched. Justice is blind, I guess. 

On to the Trespassing.