Pig

Another film recommendation and, quite by chance, it’s yet another NICOLAS CAGE movie. Please don’t get the impression I’m a Cage uber fan or anything like that – he just makes a lot of movies I happen to be interested in. I sat down for a Cage double bill recently – PIG and DREAM SCENARIO. I’d been looking forward to DREAM SCENARIO, but found it frustrating – an engaging enough story that squanders a brilliant concept. I knew next to nothing about PIG, on the other hand, and it took my breath away.

A truffle hunter who lives alone in the Oregon wilderness must return to his past in Portland in search of his beloved foraging pig after she is kidnapped.

After reading the synopsis, watching the trailer, and knowing of Cage’s reputation, I went into PIG expecting a quirky action movie in the vein of JOHN WICK (and its endless, increasingly preposterous sequels) or TAKEN (ditto). I couldn’t have been more wrong. If anything, it’s more akin to DAVID MICHOD‘s underappreciated 2014 movie, THE ROVER. I think you can argue that the marketing of PIG is deliberately ambiguous, and the trailer does little to refute that, making Cage look like a vigilante in the mould of Wick, but minus the effortless cool, slick stylings, and abundance of weapons. If that’s what you’re after, then you’re going to be bitterly disappointed. But if you’re looking for something with more depth, a film with an emotional heft that’ll catch you off guard, PIG might do the trick.

Cage excels here as the mysterious Rob – a character who initially appears to fit all the stereotypes of the outcast loner. ALEX WOLFF plays Amir, buyer of the truffles unearthed by the titular pig, and apparently Rob’s sole connection with the outside world. The mismatched pairing of these two works well, both having unexpected yet satisfying arcs. When Rob’s isolated shack is attacked and the pig is stolen, he co-opts Amir to help him track the kidnappers down. On the face of it, it looks like a classic fish out of water, vengeance against the odds story, but it’s so much more than that.

PIG is the debut feature of writer/director MICHAEL SARNOSKI, who went on to helm last year’s unexpectedly ace prequel – A QUIET PLACE: DAY ONE. As I mentioned with the marketing, Sarnoski appears to enjoy toying with our expectations and subverting them, and that’s crucial to the success of PIG. As always in these recommendations, I steer well away from spoilers so I don’t want to give anything else away about the direction the film, and Cage’s character, takes.

It’s always difficult to know how much or how little to write about a film when recommending it. PIG, though, is definitely one of those movies where the viewer benefits from knowing less in advance. I went in expecting a violent, gore-filled revenge flick, but found something unexpectedly beautiful instead. You can probably tell from the way I keep crowbarring our cats into social media posts that I’m a big old softy when it comes to animals and the bond we have with them. This one sucker punched me. Highly, highly recommended.

PIG is currently streaming on NETFLIX in the UK.