Knowing little about it, I went into my local theater to watch Michael Sarnoski’s directorial debut, Pig. I saw it playing at my local theater, checked out its score on Rotten Tomatoes (97% and 95%), and then looked at the scores assigned by Richard Roeper (4/4 stars) and also the score on Roger Ebert’s website (also 4/4 stars). The movie poster made it look like a backwoods thriller. It was enough for me. I had no idea what the movie was even about. I recall when I saw David Fincher’s Se7en back in 1995. I knew nothing about that film, which is one reason I am still so mesmerized and starstruck by that film. Had I learned more about it, it still would have been a forever classic with me. But there was something about that journey of not knowing anything about it but being completely engrossed by it. The comparison between Se7en and Pig ends there but is a notable mention nonetheless.
When reading multiple reviews after watching Pig, I was shocked by how many compared the film to John Wick. Believe it or not, I have yet to see a John Wick film, though the first one is on my shortlist. Pig stars Nicholas Cage (Wild at Heart, Raising Arizona). If I had been asked if I ever planned on seeing a movie with Cage as the only recognizable name in the theater ever again, I would have said no. He has produced some garbage films over the last 15 years. It’s kind of a running joke that even Cage is akin to how bad his movies are. However, he has an incredible fanbase that will see whatever movie he is in. Cage also can’t be super choosy these days. He’s been in a lot of personal debt for years and needs these paydays to climb out of that hole.
It’s hard to think that he won an Academy Award, deservedly so, for Leaving Las Vegas in 1995. While that seems like a lifetime ago, it still seems unfathomable that he has starred in an incredible 78 movies since then, most of which you have never heard of, let alone seen. Sure, he had significant box office successes immediately following Leaving Las Vegas with the likes of Con Air, The Rock, Face/Off, and Gone in 60 Seconds, each of which amassed over $100 million at the box office. He certainly capitalized on his Oscar win with leading roles in big-budget movies. However, some unwise financial decisions (including purchasing two different castles in Europe, a pet octopus, and his own private island in The Bahamas) resulted in squandering $150 million of his money, including owing the IRS $6.3 million on property taxes alone. As a result, Cage faced taking leading roles in numerous not-so-good movies to get himself out of debt. His filmography is filled with movies you’ve never heard of. Look at some of those critic and audience scores!
In Pig, Cage stars as Robin Feld, a man living off the grid in the Pacific Northwest with his truffle-hunting pig. What is a truffle? I wondered the same thing myself and wasn’t entirely sure for most of the film. At first glance, you may think Robin’s pig is finding some hidden drug or jewel. It may sound stupid if you know what a truffle is, but the way that whatever the pig was discovering in the woods of the Oregon wilderness let you understand that it was valuable. I will save you the confusion of not knowing what a truffle is by offering its definition from Wikipedia. A truffle is the fruiting body of a subterranean ascomycete fungus, predominantly one of the many species of the genus Tuber. In layman’s terms, truffles are edible fungi, like mushrooms. However, unlike mushrooms, they grow underground near tree roots, and the best truffles that are used at high-end restaurants are costly, sometimes as much as thousands of dollars per pound. A truffle pig is adept at finding these truffles that are buried in various locations throughout the world. But, as one person wrote when doing my research, they’re challenging to find, a pain to grow, and lose their sexy aroma within a week.
Amir (Alex Wolff – Old, Patriots Day) is a young entrepreneur who buys these truffles sold by Robin. Amir drives to Robin’s undisclosed location, picks up the truffle (still encased in dirt), and then sells it to a contact or the highest bidder. We don’t know the actual price, nor do we know how much Robin receives. But it is enough for him to sustain his primitive lifestyle in his remote cabin. It’s just Robin and the pig. Robin doesn’t shower throughout the film, and it’s implied that he doesn’t bathe much at all. At one point, Amir mentions getting him a portable shower with running water to watch Robin stare him down.
Something happens to Robin before he is introduced. We learn he was a successful, high-end chef in Portland fifteen years prior. He left all of that behind to leave a life of seclusion. At first, we don’t know any more of his back story, and I’m curious if we ever truly know what that is. At one point in the film, there is a conversation between Robin and another character, but I couldn’t make much of it. At the movie’s start, Robin holds a cassette tape that says, “For Robin.” He doesn’t play it. We can infer that it’s because it brings him too much pain. His sole companion is his pig. He treats the pig as most of us might our dog. The pig even has a little bed next to Robin’s.
When his cabin is broken into during the middle of the night, Robin is beaten, and his pig is taken. Where the pig goes is uncertain, but we learn that there is quite the market for a pig that can do what Robin’s pig can do. So, Robin’s mission is to find out where his pig went and how he can get it back. It forces him to reemerge into society after a decade and a half to find his beloved pig, encountering people from his past who thought he might have been dead for years. When I say he disappeared, he disappeared. If Pig sets itself up as a revenge movie, that’s what I also thought. But for a pig? There are more bizarre stories, but it might seem like this is a stretch for a movie. However, the more we learn about Robin, the more tender and heartfelt his story becomes. We can only penetrate his hard exterior through his love for his companion. And we believe it.
If the plot for Pig seems absurd, I assure you it isn’t. If I had read the synopsis for Pig before seeing it, I would have gone in believing that this would be some artsy type of movie I would have to suffer through. That wasn’t the case at all. Pig is unlike any film I’ve ever seen before. It was soft and tender. It was lending itself to a revenge movie, or at least you thought it was. A friend asked me if it was more dramatic or sad. My reply was that it wasn’t either. She then asked if it was more action or suspense. It wasn’t either of those either. It was just a story of a man who had somehow been hurt by something that happened in society and decided to flee from that pain.
This movie was a pleasant surprise. I have yet to watch many of Cage’s movies this century. There just hasn’t been much of any substance. Physically, his character looks like an out-of-shape version of Cameron Poe in Con Air. But this character was closer to the character he played in Leaving Las Vegas. Each of these characters displayed a similar pain and hurt. Both had a longing that they were missing. Both characters were believable. Cage’s Robin certainly has a limited amount of dialogue in Pig, but he also doesn’t have to. Wolff held his own with this Hollywood heavyweight. We had the opportunity to watch a portion of this film through Amir’s eyes. He was starstruck by this legend of a character he had previously known from his visits to his cabin to pick up the found truffles. He provided comic relief to some extent (there wasn’t much, but he did help lighten the mood), but more, he proved to be Robin’s only true human friend.
Finally, the movie had a brilliant score. Soft, harmonic violins weaved together our scenes. They were subtle, soft, and gentle, like our lead character. You may not notice them without reading this review first. But if you check this out beforehand, you’ll undoubtedly see the strings’ accompaniment, enhancing your overall experience.
Plot 7/10
Character Development 8/10
Character Chemistry 9/10 (Cage and Woff had great chemistry together)
Acting 9/10
Screenplay 8/10
Directing 8.5/10
Cinematography 9/10
Sound 10/10
Hook and Reel 9/10
Universal Relevance 7.5/10
85%
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