Sonny (2002)

A Nicolas Cage movie, directed and produced, SONNY is stark, raw and straight-to-the-point. Fresh from his release from the Army, Sonny heads home to New Orleans with the intent of telling his mother Jewel(Brenda Blethyn)that he has no plans of returning to his former lifestyle. You see, Sonny's previous job was pleasing the ladies...a popular gigolo working for his mother, who taught him everything he knows. The job that his Army buddy(Scott Caan)falls through leaving Sonny to return to doing what he does well. Working for Jewel is a pretty young girl named Carol(Mena Suvari)that deep inside wants to leave the business and live like the "normal" people that marry and have a home with children. She tries to convince Sonny to join her and runaway from the seedy life in the Big Easy's underbelly. Some real strong images of sexual activity; boring...this movie is not. Also starring are: Harry Dean Stanton, Brenda Vaccaro, Seymour Cassel, Josie Davis and a Nic Cage cameo as Acid Yellow, a gay pimp. Some heavy tunes from Rush, Chicago, Devo and David Bowie.

Nicolas Cage needed to get this out of his system, I guess. He never directed before or since, and it's a project that speaks somewhat to what we know about his influences - James Franco, channeling, I think, James Dean, who was Cage's reason to become an actor - and, I suppose, to his wanting to tell this particular story of a gigolo in New Orleans circa 1981. Whether or not he'll make a movie with such concerns, or just another movie as director period, remains to be seen. For now we have this, a melancholy look at a young man screwed up by his mother (and by screwed up I mean by her having him as a man-whore starting when he was 12 years old) and unsure of where to go in his life. It has its misses, and just strange quality about it at times. But it also has life and some weird energy about it that's hard to shake off.Cage certainly casts with some interest, and more or less he's a good actor's director. He gets Franco to dig deep into his character Sonny, a guy who escaped to the army more-so than really serving from his existence as a hustler of lonely middle-aged women looking for some hot thrills and sex. When he gets back he wants to go legit - something his mother (Brenda Blethyn) is dead-set against - but is drawn back in after a bad encounter visiting an old army buddy in Texas, and when he realizes that his reputation in the quarter of New Orleans he lives in is locked: he's a man-whore, and is undesirable except in his lowly position. He also seeks advice from a boyfriend of his mothers, Harry Dean Stanton, and his mother's current protégé prostitute played by Mena Suvari.Cage manages to get some really affecting scenes with his characters. One of which is the morning after Sonny and Carol have done some prostituting at a Louisiana mansion (Sonny with the main madame, Carol with some other guy), and they're at a farm and see in the barn a dog that's just given birth to puppies. It brings Carol to tears as she thinks she won't be able to get out unless she makes a clean break. It's one of those highly melodramatic scenes- think Douglas Sirk, that much so- but it works, albeit with some cheesy touches (when Carol says to Sonny "I love you" rain just starts on cue). Other scenes try to be more affecting but are a little more compromised. Scenes where Jewel (Blethyn) does her sob routine in front of Sonny work up to a certain Tennessee Williams style dramatic point, but Blethyn's accent is way over the top. A couple of short scenes between Stanton and Franco fare much better.And other times Cage is just trying things out as a director, and sometimes things work and sometimes not. He's a little rocky when it comes to scene transitions: we see Sonny's trip from New Orleans to Texas with lots of fast-motion shots of his car driving to Rush's 'Limelight' and it's just silly. And when it comes time for Sonny to really be low in the dumps following the death of a character, as he wanders drunk and meets a gay drug-fueled pimp (played by Cage himself, Acid Yellow, a particularly strange and unerring figure to come at this point in the film), it's met with some mixed results as Franco is good but everything else seems forced or fake. But, again, usually with his actors he gets good work, and a feeling of a 1950's existential crisis comes out of the material that works for Franco to play up (frankly he might even be better than Dean in some cases, perhaps slightly channeling young Cage to boot), and the ending of the film is a very nice twist.It's not something to rush out to rent or buy, and I'm sure only die-hard Cage enthusiasts or fans of the actors will really seek it out (any die-hard fans of Blethyn out there?). On its own terms, however modest, it comes in with a swagger and heartbeat and does its own thing to some good if not great effect. If Cage has another project he wants to direct, I'll show some interest if not overwhelming enthusiasm.

I thought this film would blow me away and might be original considering the subject matter. I was wrong. The acting was less than average from 3 actors that are usually brilliant. The characters are inconsistently played (except for Brenda Blethyn), probably due to poor direction. Blethyn's character is over the top and melodramatic. Mena's is wispy and under-played and James Franco's doesn't have half the impact it should.In short, without spoiling the plot, I expected far more from Nicolas Cage and from the actors.Poor effort from a story that had the potential to be interesting, emotional and gripping.

Maybe Nic Cage conducted a seance and summoned up the ghost of Mr. Williams, cause this stinks like one of his lesser efforts, all the way.I believe James Franco has something good to offer the world of cinema but half the time you cannot hear a word he's saying. Most likely to overcompensate, Brenda Blethyn overplays her role as his Mother/pimp, and while she has her moments, they are few and far between.Mena Suvari gives the best performance, though I didn't really understand any of the relationships in the movie. Harry Dean Stanton just hangs around...why? Not that he bothers me, but what's your part? Suvari and Franco get too dramatic too quickly and have some puerile dialogue, some of it in the rain..its too much to bear.It was nice to see Brenda Vaccaro as one of Sonny's 'customers' but it hardly was enough to save the movie. Cage himself is seen briefly at the end. I hope when he directs a real movie that I'll be interested enough to see it, although that's doubtful since this was such an ordeal. 3/10.