After having worked together on the film The Secrets We Keep, actor Joel Kinnaman (Suicide Squad, Robocop) and director Yuval Adler reunite in the action-thriller Sympathy for the Devil. New writer Luke Paradise already has several scripts under his belt, but this was the first one to be produced and released. Kinnaman, whose everyman makeover evokes memories of Dennis Weaver’s character from Duel, plays a modest-looking father-to-be on his way to meet his newborn at the hospital when he receives an unexpected passenger. From there this story follows a familiar path as the two leads embark on a perilous journey together.
Many road-set thrillers aren’t exactly novel or even plausible, but their sense of urgency, straightforwardness and pacing often make them entertaining. Sympathy for the Devil certainly shows promise as Nicolas Cage‘s character finds his way into a stranger’s car and then forces the motorist to be his chauffeur for the evening. The Driver (Kinnaman) — descriptors rather than names are used all throughout this film — is expected at the hospital where his girlfriend is set to give birth, but The Passenger (Cage) has other plans for this ordinary joe. Of course as the night goes on, it becomes clear Cage didn’t just step into a random car.
The crucial chase element in these kinds of films can be literal, but in the case of Sympathy for the Devil, the story is fueled by the up-close-and-personal tension between the driver and his unwelcome fare. The Passenger needles away at Kinnaman’s character, who becomes more and more undone the farther he’s pulled away from his family. The victim’s lifeline being diminished in real time helps to raise as well as maintain a sizable amount of suspense.
Adler and Paradise plant seeds of doubt early on about The Driver and The Passenger’s relationship, naturally causing you to think there’s more to this carjacking than the basic premise lets on. While it might have been more beneficial to the film to keep a tighter lid on things, perhaps it’s also naïve to think this was all some haphazard act. Sympathy for the Devil, however, does squeeze in a surprising twist that adds weight to an otherwise undercooked story.
Where Sympathy for the Devil struggles the most is its consistency in tone. While Kinnaman and everyone else are on the same page about this being a grim and neo-noir type thriller, Nicolas Cage undermines everything with a scene-chewing, out-of-place performance. It’s initially the standard “act crazy to be seen as crazy” schtick found in other similar films, but Cage turns the dial all the way up. From screeching his lines to gyrating his hips for what can only be laughs, The Passenger does the exact opposite of intimidating viewers. No matter how scared his casualties may appear, that’s clearly a testament to their own talents as actors. Cage is arguably at his best when he reins himself in, yet here he chose excessive.
Sympathy for the Devil is successful at establishing atmosphere and preserving a steady level of suspense. Its villainous lead’s over-the-top and discordant performance weakens the whole affair, but there’s still enough here to keep most viewers awake at the wheel.
Tales from the Paulside 
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