From the beginning of the film it is evident just how interesting a role Nicolas Cage plays. In this July release, Cage stars in Pig, a movie about an isolated man, living away from the world, who sells truffles and lives with his pig.

Cage, who is not known for playing roles of this nature, truly stretches his range of his acting skills to nail the character of Robin Feld. Feld is a man who is troubled by death, specifically that of his wife Lorie. He was a chef in the progressive Portland food industry and was very well known. His character is now isolated, and Cage progresses him really well to help us understand just who Robin Feld is, and why his name is important. He is joined by the man he sells his truffles, Amir (Alex Wolff), and the differences between the two make for a good pair on Robs journey. 

The plot of this film is truly bizarre. The film all relates around Robs relationship with his Pig. The pig helps him find truffles and is the only living thing with Rob in his log cabin in the woods. You don’t watch Pig for what it is, but what it can be. On paper it is such a weird concept for such a big scale film which includes a household name as its star. Without Cage I am not sure what would propel someone to watch this. There are a lot of  plot points to the film that are out of the ordinary. For starters almost the entire film Rob is bloody and never cleans up once.  After Rob heads into the city, once his pig is stolen, they visit multiple members of the food industry.

We meet Edgar (Darius Pierce) who tells Rob how he is nothing and doesn’t even exist anymore (in quite an excessive and dramatic fashion). Unexplainably he knows Edgar will know about the pig, and he tries one more time to convince Edgar to give him some information. He does this by attending an underground restaurant-worker fight club, where the highest bidder proceeds to freely take swings at him for ten seconds. This then leads him to Chef Finway (David Knell), who reacts super strangely to hearing that Robin Feld is in front of him. His reaction is not expected, or justified, and is another weird plot point progressing Robs journey. Lastly, they end at Amirs’ father, and (after another strange interaction) an emotional moment leads to the news of what happened to the Pig. Rob cooks for Amirs’ father, and it reminds him of the meals he used to enjoy with his wife (because Rob was the chef at their favorite restaurant). The film ends depressingly, with prolonged sadness, and no feeling of justification (SPOILER) for Amirs’ fathers actions in stealing the pig. 

Setting aside any abnormal plot points, there were a bunch of positives to the film that did make it a nice story for what it is. As previously mentioned, Nicolas Cage nails his role. He shows that not only does he still got it, but his acting bounds are only expanding. The story line (yes, not normal) starts with a lot of open-ended scenes that only unravel themselves as the film progresses. The writer does a great job at hiding information from the viewer, and very gradually revealing the most sought after answer. All the characters’ story points all come together including all the death from Amirs family and from Rob. 

Verdict: 2.5/5

This film has such a quirky storyline that makes it hard to watch. The acting is very strong and the story develops well. It is definitely not the most exciting film but if you are a fan of Nicolas Cage it is a good watch.