Bill Gibron is a veteran film critic from Tampa, Florida.With the current Nicolas Cage, it's always more film famine than celluloid feast. From Season of the Witch to such off the radar ridiculousness as Trespass, the one-time respected Oscar winner continues his streak of senseless script approvals with Seeking Justice, a weird combination of vigilantism and post-modern conspiracy theorizing. In the hands former first class director, Roger Donaldson (No Way Out, Thirteen Days), the man who never met a paycheck he couldn't commandeer is a New Orleans school teacher desperate to get back at those who wronged him. He winds up locked in a baffling battle between right and wrong where morality is measured out in underwhelming action scenes and an equally unimpressive message. Will Gerard (Cage) thinks his life in a post-Katrina New Orleans is pretty good, that is, until his wife (January Jones) is brutally beaten and raped. While in the hospital at her bedside, he is approached by a strange bald man named Simon (Guy Pearce) who makes an unusual offer. As long as the mild mannered math instructor agrees to do something for him in the future, the mysterious gent will make sure that the cruel criminal pays. Sure enough, our hero receives proof of the rapist's demise, and a few months later, is approach about fulfilling his end of the bargain. Turns out, Simon wants him to follow and then "take out" a presumed pedophile. When Will discovers that the target is also an investigative reporter with possible damning information on Simon's secret 'organization,' he starts to doubt the whole street justice angle. It takes a lot to drain the vicarious thrills out of the almost always audience friendly vigilante subgenre, but Seeking Justice someone manages to do so. Even with Donaldson doing his very best, and the capable cast trying, the film just can't overcome its clunky script. There's just too much going on and not a lot of it makes sense. We get why Will would want revenge...his spouse is horrifically violated. We also get why, in a moment of weakness, he would make the kind of deal which seems instantly suspicious. But with the lag in time, the attempt to rebuild his life, and his supposed status as an intelligent man, Will's second act antics become more and more unbelievable. Eventually, when the internal 'twist' is revealed, the movie has lost most of its credibility.
Even worse, we don't get the typical performance from our star. We expect scenery chewing and unexplained insanity, but Seeking Justice offers us the worst kind of Cage - subdued. Meaning dull. Meaning that there is no chance of a sour scene or lame premise being pumped up by Nic's notable bravado. Instead, he tries to be serious and without enough substance in the screenplay to support such an approach, the end results reek. It's like watching a famous freak on tranquilizers. We want the rants. We want the ravings. All we get is a clunky cog in a motion picture machine that routinely runs out of gas.
Within the vigilante format, we want certain tropes. We want the hissable villain that deserves death. We need the innocent man suddenly lost in an abyss of immoral consequences. We want victims vindicated and the wicked destroyed. But mostly, we want something to push us to the edge of our seat, to feel a sense of suspense and dread whenever our reluctant hero walks into the forced fray. Here, Cage is just a weak willed wimp who takes an offer he couldn't refuse (but will still regret) and then proceeds to bore us. Instead of seeking justice, this movie should be looking for some entertainment value.
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