Man, that's some 'Pig'
Neon
Just before I watch "Pig" I come across a Twitter survey asking people to rank health, wealth, happiness and purpose. At first it seems easy; maybe it's not. But it's heavy and meaningful, as much as Twitter surveys can be.
"Pig" is a terrifically serious movie. It stars Nicolas Cage, an actor who in recent years has more often been laughed at, mocked for his extremes, questioned for his decisions. I'm not here to defend straight-to-DVD stuff or say that he hasn't made trash. But don't forget that Cage can be incredibly good, and importantly earnest. "It Could Happen to You" is one of my favorite movies, and it is a role that finds him in such a sincere mode that someone out there I'm sure has come across it and refused to reconcile that Nicolas Cage with the other one, the modern one, the one where purpose often seems so distant, where wealth is assumedly more the issue.
That's not to say Cage can't be funny on purpose; the dual-role vulnerability of "Adaptation," the willfully grandiose "Face/Off." He's an actor who sometimes makes you think he has no volume control, like he wants you to be fooled. Maybe "Con Air" is stupid, maybe it's a classic. The point is that Cage is someone who, somehow, has never really disappeared, not like countless others who appear on the edges of the cover at Redbox or on Tubi. Cage isn't Bruce Willis, lazy and indifferent. In "Pig," the actor, and the character he plays (a reclusive Portland-area man attempting to find his pig, who was stolen and happens to be a master at finding truffles), are straight-through, serious as hell, sure as anything. This is a movie about knowing what's important, setting everything else aside, but without the suggestion that there's no cost to that. Just priorities and grit and distance between people over time, or over a night.
It's a weird way to reflect on a movie about a lost pig, maybe, until you see it. Writer-director Michael Sarnoski is after something beautiful and sad, in many ways despairing and only partially resilient. As Rob (Cage) and his truffle dealer Amir (Alex Wolff) go from the woods to the city in search of Rob's trusted partner, "Pig" opens up unexpectedly to salute authenticity and question anything else. Words can only sell it so much; there's an odd feeling here that cuts right to a world that gets in the way of love in its purest form. Not many movies can draw a line between "Fight Club" and "Ratatouille," but here ya go.
A-
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