Dying of the Light 2014 Paul Schrader is credited as the writer and director of “Dying of the Light,”but that authorial attribution comes with an asterisk: The cut reaching theatres isn’t his. In protest, Mr. Schrader; his stars Nicolas Cage and Anton Yelchin; and one of his executive producers, the film-maker Nicolas Winding Refn, have appeared online in T-shirts emblazoned with the text of a non disparagement clause. Nevertheless, what emerges in “Dying of the Light” is an uncommonly contemplative cat-and-mouse thriller: a meditation on mortality and fanaticism, themes familiar to Mr. Schrader, whose explorations of the subjects include his work as the screenwriter of “Taxi Driver” and as the director of “Hardcore” and “Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters.” Mr. Cage plays Evan Lake, a three-decade C.I.A. operative who delivers rallying talks to recruits, telling them that the organization didn’t outlive its usefulness when the Berlin Wall ell. Lake yearns to catch Muhammad Banir (Alexander Karim), a terrorist the agency says is dead and won’t investigate, even when evidence suggests otherwise. Lake, who can’t abide a murderer going free, has started to experience symptoms of frontotemporal dementia. Banir, who suffers from a hereditary blood disease, is portrayed as Lake’s mirror image: Each man is a dying true believer sidelined in a changing world. (In the funniest scene, Lake has an outburst when told he can’t smoke in a restaurant in Romania.) Because Lake’s condition causes inappropriate reactions and unreliable perception, his foul-mouthed criticism of what he sees as botched C.I.A. operations is open to interpretation. Even without an intellectual dimension, “Dying of the Light” would make a decent espionage picture, a companion to the similarly character-driven “A Most Wanted Man.” The notion of an undercover agent with an untrustworthy mind is a great gimmick — and on a commercial level, “Dying of the Light” sometimes plays as just another high-concept vehicle for a comically overacting Mr. Cage. But Mr. Schrader’s vision is strong enough to rage against the hackier calculations.
Posted on: Wed, 10 Dec 2014 15:34:29 +0000
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