Let’s get these points out of the way up front.
The new mystery-crime thriller “Sympathy for the Devil” (“Sympathy”) has no connection whatsoever to the Rolling Stones song of the same name, and neither is it a remake of the exact-same-titled movies from 1968, 1997, or 2019.
There are no supernatural elements, nor the type of demonic 11th hour reveals found in “Angel Heart,” “The Usual Suspects,” or “The Devil’s Advocate.” Although there is no “devil,” so to speak, there is plenty of evil and mayhem, but not the kind we’ve come to expect from modern day schlock action or horror flicks.
Atypical Angles, No Clichés
It’s success is due mostly to the choice of Israeli director Yuval Adler (“Bethlehem,” “The Secrets We Keep”) to position his constantly moving camera in a manner that offers atypical angles and perspectives. It helps that first-time feature screenwriter Luke Paradise steadfastly avoids genre clichés and parcels out back stories in small dollops. We don’t get the big picture until well into the third act.Mr. Paradise adds to the originality of the project by not giving any of the characters Christian or surnames; however, one of the characters is addressed in traditional form, but with differing names.
The press notes and end credits identify the co-leads as “The Driver” (Joel Kinnaman) and “The Passenger” (Nicolas Cage), but they are never aurally addressed as such.
The movie opens with the Driver dropping off his young boy at his mother-in-law’s home on the way to a Las Vegas hospital to be with his wife who is moments away from delivering their third child. The conversation between father and son is basic, but also relatively deep and will be revisited in various incarnations throughout the film.
Placate Him
In a move meant to stop the Driver from asking endlessly probing questions, the Passenger tells him that once he’s driven to Boulder to visit his dying mother, he’ll be let go. Because there is now something resembling motive and proposed closure, the Driver is given some degree (however minute) of optimism and relief.All the Driver has to do is stay quiet and obey traffic laws and specifically not to speed, two conditions he violates almost immediately. These leads to being pulled over by the police, angering the wired Passenger even more, and things go horribly wrong.
Adding to the Driver’s problems are multiple frantic phone calls from his wife (Rachael Boyd, voice only) that mostly go unanswered which, in turn, causes her to stress out and possibly miscarry.
The second half of the film is set mostly at a roadhouse diner where the men restart the cat and mouse thing, only this time within earshot of another patron, the owner-chef and a waitress (Alexis Zollicoffer), whose snarky, can’t-be-bothered demeanor isn’t well received.
A Second Look
After finishing the movie and going over my notes, I came to the conclusion that perhaps I’d missed something because the finished product didn’t equate to the sum of its parts. Luckily, I had the time and opportunity to watch it a second time, and now I feel it makes complete sense. Every word, phrase, utterance, or mention is there for a reason.
Mr. Paradise composed an air-tight script that, like all great thrillers, is deceptively simple. It’s easy for people to make often incorrect assumptions and conclusions when only given bit and pieces of a story.
Known mostly for playing the title character in the “RoboCop” remake and the two “Suicide Squad” movies, Mr. Kinnaman’s Driver offers ideal juxtaposition to Mr. Cage’s Passenger. Tall, lean, and soft-spoken, the Driver is the perfect victim archetype to the Passenger’s unhinged madman.
Nearly every filmmaker’s choice when it comes to needing a sustained off-the-chain performance with just a whiff of self-awareness, Mr. Cage fully delivers the goods here. My only issue with his performance was his inconsistent “Bah-ston” accent, which on occasion sounds more “New Yawk.”
If you’re looking for a neat, bowtie ending here, you’ll be out of luck. “Sympathy” raises as many questions as it answers, practically forcing the viewer to come to their own moral and ethical conclusions.
