In Sympathy for the Devil, Joel Kinnaman is having a bad day. His character, referred to in all promotional material as “The Driver”, has a long night ahead of him. First, he has to drop his young son off at his mother-in-law’s for the night. Why? Because his wife is about to give birth to their second attempt at a second child. The last attempt unfortunately resulted in a miscarriage, so he’s understandably worried. Will the baby survive this time? Will his wife, for that matter? He’s got a lot on his mind.
Enter Nicolas Cage as “The Passenger”. And I do mean enter in the literal sense, as he hops into the backseat of The Driver’s car in the hospital parking garage, shoves a gun in his face, and tells him – in a gloriously over-the-top Bostonian accent – to start driving. This is not the kind of extra stress that one wants piled atop an already-tense life situation.
What does The Passenger want? Why is he there? What are his plans for The Driver? All of the above will eventually be answered as the film plays out, so if you’re worrying about too much ambiguity in this movie, considered your mind eased. It’s not that kind of movie. The answers do recall a very specific film, but I won’t get into that, as it’d spoil things. Rest assured, you’ll know what I’m talking about when the time comes.
Speaking of comparisons, I’ve seen this described as “Nic Cage’s Collateral” (or “Cagelateral”) by more than a few people. While I get that comparison to a point, there similarities are surface-level at best. This isn’t about The Passenger forcing The Driver to cart him from crime scene to crime scene. Nor is The Passenger literally The Devil, which many assumed in the lead up to the film’s release. Sorry folks, but you’ll have to hope Rage Cage portrays Ol’ Scratch in something else on down the line.
Instead, Sympathy for the Devil is really just a lean, mean mid-’90s crime thriller of a road movie. It could have easily been made 20 years ago with John Travolta and Tim Robbins as a response to the crime flick boom brought about by the success of Reservoir Dogs, True Romance, and Pulp Fiction. This is very much in the mold of the Tarantinosploitation efforts at the time like Love and a .45, Things to Do in Denver When You’re Dead, Truth & Consequences N.M., Normal Life, and Freeway.
That’s the vibe we’re playing with here. A everyday schmoe has his life turned upside down by an unexpected wild criminal element and has to figure his way out of it before he ends up dead. It’s as simple as that. These movies were a dime a dozen in the mid-to-late-’90s. The ones I mentioned above are but a fraction of the onslaught of similar fare that rolled out during that timeframe. They are far more of a novelty these days, however. We still get them from time to time, like Drew Goddard’s Bad Times at the El Royale, but they’re no longer commonplace.
How does Sympathy for the Devil stack up? Pretty well, I’d say. It’s not going to win any points for originality in terms of writing or direction, but Kinnaman and (especially) Cage are beyond game for the shenanigans at hand. Both deliver the goods from start to finish, taking what could have been a fairly rote crime thriller and injecting it with enough chutzpah to make it worthwhile. If you’re in the mood for an entertaining throwback, it should get the job done. Check it out wherever VODs are sold.
Sympathy for the Devil is an original supernatural action thriller. It was directed by Yuval Adler, from a screenplay by Luke Paradise. The film was produced by Marc Goldberg, Alex Lebovici, Stuart Manashil, Allan Ungar, Nicolas Cage, Aaron Collins, and David Hillary. It stars Nicolas Cage, Joel Kinnaman, Danny Tesla, Burns Burns, Alexis Zollicoffer, Rich Hopkins, Cameron Lee Price, Nancy Good, Kaiwi Lyman, Oliver McCallum, Annisse White, and Rachael Boyd.
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