The ReCagenaissance. The ReenCagement. The Cageback. The ReincarCagion. The Second Caging.
Teaming with David Gordon Green for a tense, derivative addition to the “white trash noir” genre, clearly Nicolas Cage is shooting for a McConaughey-like return to respectability.
And not a moment too soon. With godawful thrillers and supernatural flops behind him, Joe lets Cage get on with what he does best: layering explosive intensity under a palpable decency – creating characters at once horrific and humane.
Alas, the movie is too obvious about giving Cage an acting showcase, while also desperately striving for deep resonance in its portrayals of good and evil in a poverty-stricken rural Southern town. With echoes of Mud and Undertow, Cage’s engaging titular character is a respected lumber worker, pillar of the community, mentor to young teen Gary (Mud’s Tye Sheridan) – and a rage-prone alcoholic. Confronted both by the return of an old enemy and the abuse Gary suffers at the hands of his monstrous drunkard father (Gary Poulter, outstanding), Joe’s instincts to destroy and protect come into conflict and threaten to
boil over.
A moody score, intimate camera work and the grim atmospheric setting evoke a sense of grace and menace. Sadly Joe’s sledgehammer symbolism undoes any subtlety. As Biblical snakes are caught, murders followed by tender kisses, prostitutes bathed in red light and dogs literally eat dogs, the action and character motivations feel inorganic. The neon sign pointing to Man’s Grapple With Human Nature is as obvious as the one pointing to Nicolas Cage’s Return to Grace – and only one of them proves illuminating.