Movie Review: Pig – Directed by Michael Sarnoski

Pig is a deliciously paced and visceral thriller drama co-written and directed by Michael Sarnoski in his directorial debut, starring Nicolas Cage, Alex Wolff and Adam Arkin.

Rob (Nicolas Cage) is a former chef now living alone in a cabin within the Oregan forests, and spends his days as a reclusive truffle forager alongside his prized truffle-hunting pig.

Rob’s only social interactions are with Amir (Alex Wolff), a posturing supplier of luxury ingredients to high-end restaurants, who buys truffles from Rob and is carried largely by the success of his wealthy father, Darius (Adam Arkin).

After Rob is assaulted by masked assailants and his pig is stolen, he contacts Amir and the pair follow their first clue to a local truffle farmer and some nearby drug addicts.

So begins Rob and Amir’s journey through Rob’s past and Amir’s present, weaving a maze of mystery through truffle farms, underground fight clubs, sterile high-end restaurants, and back in on itself like an ouroboros of cuisine and truffles.

The story is unique – and on paper, quirky to the point of absurdity – but captivatingly genuine, full of subdued charm and heart. The early assault of Rob and the theft of the pig are tragic and saddening, and as we continue learning about Robin and his past life as Chef Feld – his extreme intensity, reputation, and the spectral fear he instils in everyone who hears his name – the overlapping elements of frustrated rage in Robin and his pursuit bubbles and boils without reducing the heat throughout the second act.

Nicolas Cage has gradually mastered this polar opposite performance style, the extreme, emotionlessly underplayed outcast, and here this is framed so perfectly and paced so well that his performance is near-flawless; mesmerising and endearing and beautifully tragic.

Pig begins gorgeously slow, tranquil and peaceful. The stillness of the opening forests and rows of autumnal trees surrounding Robin’s cottage is a pensive background for his immediately weary intensity, contrasting with the delicate chirping of birds and surrounding nature. The film’s cinematography enhances these early sections, and maintains that brooding intensity into the film’s final moments.

Pig is a film that persistently raises the theme of style over substance, where the wisest man in the room is the one judged poorly on his appearance, and food is an art form of the heart and for the senses, not for the hollow illusion of opulence. Much of the film is drenched in that same autumnal tone, a muted-earth palette and warm glow that give the film a grimy, humble authenticity.

This is contrasted in the stark whites and obscene grandeur of the restaurant world, as the characters follow the path of mystery and the world grows increasingly sterile, clinical, and inauthentic. Throughout, both Cage and Wolff give phenomenal performances, magnetic and captivating in their polar-opposite emotional instability.

Robin is the personification of craftsmanship, smoke, earth, and graceful appreciation, never cleaning himself and growing increasingly stained by the psychological and physical brutality all around him. Wolff balances Robin’s seething, bubbling frustration and intensity with a constant fragility within his character, transparent in everything he thinks and feels and driven by the fear of the illusion shattering.

The touch of isolation in Rob’s voice when he first speaks, having spent so long living in perpetual silence, and a speech he gives later to a former employee about slowly decaying and losing yourself within the illusion of high-glamour restaurants and their vapid superficiality is devastating, and adds immense depth to the perspective of Rob’s character.

While it may initially appear to be a film purely of acquired tastes, Pig reveals layer after layer of relatable, captivating humanity and heart. It’s the simplicity of the ingredients on offer, the mastery that is shown in assembling each of its components, complementing and highlighting each other, that makes it such an irresistible cinematic feast.

It’s a brutal, ugly film at times, but maintains grace and elegance even when it is unflinchingly willing to linger on our more harrowing inner turmoil, examining love and loss and what remains; the raw, rare yearning for authentic connection, the marred paths that lead us there, and the search to find meaning in a hollowed world filled with hidden treasures.

Director: Michael Sarnoski
Starring: Nicolas Cage, Alex Wolff, Adam Arkin
In Cinemas August 19

Oxford Lamoureaux