Let’s not mince words here. Nicholas Cage recent work has been a smorgasbord of the cockamamie and overwrought. Returning to the New Orleans setting of Cage’s last quality film (2009’s Bad Lieutenant) Seeking Justice starts off with some promise and gradually fizzles.
After his cellist wife (January Jones) is raped after a rehearsal, Cage’s English high school teacher Will Gerard is mysteriously approached by Simon (Guy Pearce). It seems Simon is particularly effective at a mysterious sort of vigilante justice administered to the likes of rapists and child pornographers. He initially downplays the extent of Will’s debt on behalf of the quick and total revenge that will be provided. Disoriented by his grief over a wife badly bruised and still hospitalized, Will complies. Next thing you know, he’s manipulated into a series of no-good-choice actions by an increasingly clever Simon, who’s head honcho of a secret vigilante syndicate that eventually seems as widespread in the Crescent City as gumbo. While the savvy Pearce (Memento, La A. Confidential) is convincing, his almost comical omnipresence in the film is challenged only by his equally implausible omniscience. Plot holes wide enough to fill a shrimp po-boy will pass by you like flies.
Director Roger Donaldson has a made a couple of good films over the years (13 Days, No Way Out) amidst mediocre run-of-the-mill stuff (recently the Bank Job) that provided a thrill or two for every dozen shoulder shrugs and smirks. Seeking Justice comfortably falls into the latter group. Oscar winner Nicholas Cage (it’s now 16 years ago and feels every bit of it) doesn’t do anything terribly wrong here but he certainly doesn’t elevate the material either. I haven’t seen it but I hear you need to wear a straight jacket if you attend Cage’s other new film (Ghost Rider–Spirit of Vengeance) to keep yourself from self flagellation over shelling out the !0 bucks. Here you’re more likely to enjoy a few scenes like when Will sneaks into a newspaper office after hours and gives a not suspecting reporter a detailed answer to her question of grammar before she realizes he’s an intruder. Simon is so over-the-top you can swallow a certain amount of plot affronts to your intelligence. And Jones looks good while more and more of the shenanigans around her get increasingly bizarre.
But let’s face it. This film is about as smart as the scene where Will is being chased by a cop car. After an interminable race and getaway I was left with the nagging thought that New Orleans must be really broke after Katrina since they evidently can’t afford police car radios to send for help when chasing a crazed vigilante. Succumb to this film and you’ll soon realize Cage’s character wasn’t the only one to make a bargain with the devil.
5 Flying Plot Holes (out of 10)
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