“Sympathy for the Devil” is a new thriller starring Nicolas Cage and Joel Kinnaman. It will be released on July 28 via RLJE Films.
Yuval Adler directed this movie from a screenplay by Luke Paradise.
The synopsis is: After being forced to drive a mysterious passenger (Nicolas Cage) at gunpoint, a driver (Joel Kinnaman) finds himself in a high-stakes game of cat and mouse where it becomes clear that not everything is as it seems.
The subject matter is slightly reminiscent of such films as “Collateral” and “Riding the Bullet,” it is quite edgy since it is filled with action and suspense.
The multiple plot twists and turns will keep the viewers on their toes the entire time. There are no character names in this film (just job descriptions and relationships), and that is appropriate given the serious nature of this drama. Leaving most of the names ambiguous (until the very end) helps serve the film’s overall effect.
It is rich in symbolism and motifs (if one pays close attention), and the movie’s duration is just about right without going overboard. It lives up to its tagline where “revenge is a hell of a ride.”
The Verdict
Overall, “Sympathy for the Devil” is an intense psychological thriller. Nicolas Cage and Joel Kinnaman take viewers on an exhausting cat and mouse chase, all while the driver’s wife is in labor, and Cage’s character becomes his new “family emergency.”
Joel Kinnaman is a revelation as the tortured driver. Just when one thinks that Nicolas Cage’s acting can’t get any more diabolical than his performance as Dracula in “Renfield,” which came out earlier this year, Cage proves viewers wrong again.
Joel Kinnaman’s character becomes his victim and the audience is bound to be terrified on this journey along with the driver.
