Vengeance: A Love Story

Enter, Nic Cage, been the butt of several jokes, but when you sit down and watch this movie, hes totally different, he does not feel weird and quirky, hes solid, like a rock. Empty almost and hating what hes doing but you can tell he needs to do it to sleep better. Not a wonderful film, but definitely worth a watch if you hate scumbags.

There is not much of anything original or unpredictable going on with this movie. It is pretty much your standard revenge flick, where the bad guys get off in court, and they are dealt with via vigilante justice.

There is one bright spot in the film, though. That is the performance of Talitha Bateman as the daughter. She acts in a relaxed, natural manner that is totally believable. In fact, she shows more acting ability than some of the other characters in the movie. But to be fair, there are a number of caricature roles in the movie that aren't very demanding of the actors (for example, the bad guys and their mother).

Bateman is young, so I hope she can find some better scripts than this in the future, and continues to grow as an actress. At this point, she reminds me of how Saoirse Ronan was at the same age. Ronan developed into a very good actress. I hope Bateman can do the same.

This movie showed great potential in the very beginning. There were good characters and great plot development. Then it just fell flat. I guess the vengeance was supposed to be due to the connection between the detective and the victim, but I never felt any connection between them. The actual vengeance was poorly developed and the ending was pretty lame. There are better movies to watch.

Cage is his usual self. Not as cringy as lately, actually tolerable. The movie could have been good, but it is not. I suspect some other reviewers to be in the movie industry...or they just haven't seen that many movies yet. I give it 4 stars because the young girl is really good and the beautiful mother could have been edited to be excellent....BUT, this movie is the prime example of how NOT to edit a movie. Some of the scenes are waaay to long and downright unnecessary. But some of the cuts are so long (the mother in the hospital scene with cage) that it makes the actors look like overacting imbeciles. In one scene the beautiful mother goes through 5-6 moods/expressions. From scarred, confused, elated, relieved to sad and tormented relieved again...in the same cut. And at the end, the dialogue follows the two actors by way to rapid cutting. I have never thought about editing before in my life...but this opened my eyes to the importance of that job. Got through about an hour, and just had to quit. I will think long and hard before I rent another Cage movie.

Acting is very good. Nicolas though is severely underused. Wasted even. The movie starts off very promising, like a space rocket taking off. The plot advances and just when you expect the movie to jump into high gear it only sputters, fizzles, and rapidly loses altitude. Finally showing to be a dud with a script that simply goes nowhere. Feels like a made for TV cop show movie. The failing is not the actors. They were all very good. The script is to blame.

If you have time to kill with nothing else to watch then OK. Watch it for the acting. Otherwise, pass.