Cage's 'Seeking Justice' falls prey to silly plot
Abject silliness trumps seeping paranoia in Roger Donald's crazy tale of revenge and regret, "Seeking Justice."
Imagine the Charles Bronson outraged-citizen revenge classic "Death Wish" remade by a committee instead of a director with clear vision.
You'd get something like "Seeking Justice," a thriller that offers more questions than answers, and the questions are the wrong kind.
Like: What motivates a strange and sinister guy named Simon to force average people into complicated, intricate vigilante plots to kill criminals who've eluded capture? Why doesn't he whack them himself, save all the planning time and minimize potential witnesses against him?
"Seeking Justice" kicks into gear when a recently paroled convict attacks pretty musician Laura Gerard (January Jones) as she walks home from a symphony rehearsal.
At the hospital, Laura's distraught husband, a high school English lit teacher named Will (Nicolas Cage), is approached by Simon (chameleonic Australian actor Guy Pearce), whose buzz cut and facial scars suggest an incubating skinhead.
"We're just a few citizens," Simon says, "seeking justice!"
His pitch: He can arrange to have Laura's attacker "taken care of." All Will has to do is agree to perform a small Faustian favor for Simon later.
Will suffers a brief flourish of conscience and says no.
"Nobody wants to do the nasty work!" Simon sighs.
Will eventually succumbs to his anger and signals his acceptance to Simon by purchasing two "Forever" candy bars from the hospital vending machine. (What? Were Snickers and Baby Ruth too cheap to buy product placements?)
In a short time, he receives a photo of Laura's assassinated attacker, along with the necklace the assailant stole from her. Six months pass before he receives the call we all know is coming.
Simon says Will must follow a mother and her two children through a park, and watch out for a creepy guy who might be tailing them. Then comes another "request."
Simon tells Will he must kill a pervy child pornographer over a freeway overpass and make it appear to be an accident.
OK, even if we grant that the popularity of newspapers has declined in recent years, it's a big stretch for Simon to hope that Will the English teacher never reads the local papers, otherwise he would recognize the man he's been dispatched to dispatch as the New Orleans Post's award-winning investigative journalist.
But Simon is right.
<i>Oops.</i>
"Seeking Justice" has the necessary ingredients for a full-throttle thriller laced with the sort of sinister paranoia that an old made-for-TV movie titled "Brotherhood of the Bell" served with verve.
But this screenplay (by Todd Hickey and Robert Tannen) succumbs to the sort of pedestrian dumbness that has become the calling card for Cage's movie choices for the past few years.
Cage musters his trademark slow-boil persona as Will, another generic Cage portrayal of a man in jeopardy.
Harold Perrineau Jr. plays the thankless role of Will's best friend Jimmy. (And we all know what happens to best friends in cliched Hollywood thrillers, don't we?)
If nothing else, "Seeking Justice" promotes the value of gun lessons for women.
Apparently, they're much better shots than their male counterparts.
“Seeking Justice”
★ ★
Starring: Nicolas Cage, Guy Pearce, January Jones, Harold Perrineau Jr.
Directed by: Roger Donaldson
Other: An Anchor Bay Films release. Rated R for language, violence and sexual situations. 104 minutes