THE RETIREMENT PLAN: 3 STARS. “doesn’t take itself seriously & neither should you.”
Nicolas Cage caps off a busy 2023 with “The Retirement Plan,” an unusual family dramedy that marks his fifth foray into theatres since New Year’s.
He plays Matt, a retired older guy, content with the life of a beach bum after a life of “government work.” He was, he says, an arbitrator, someone who settled disputes and “gets the job done.” He was also a crappy father to Ashley (Ashley Greene), the daughter he left behind when he abandoned her and her sick mother years ago. “If she wants to visualize me as dead, she has every right,” he says.
When Ashley and husband Jimmy (Jordan Johnson-Hinds) steal a hard drive from ruthless crime boss Donnie (Jackie Earle Haley) and his Shakespeare-loving henchman Bobo (Ron Perlman), the baddies will do almost anything to get it back, including taking her young daughter Sarah (Thalia Campbell).
Caught up in a web of trouble, Sarah reaches put to dear old dad, unaware of his violent past. As he assesses the situation, his instincts kick in as he levels the playing field.
“Here’s the thing boss,” says Bobo to Donnie, “the old guy keeps killing everybody. Everybody!”
“The Retirement Plan” owes a debt to Guy Ritchie. It doesn’t have the snap, crackle and pop of Ritchie’s early films, like “Snatch” or “Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels,” but stylistically its mix of violence and comedy plays like Ritchie Lite.
Cage hands in a charming, off-the-wall take on Matt, possibly the goofiest and most casual assassin we’ve seen on screen since “The Hitman’s Bodyguard.” He’s deadly, an unapologetic oddball, and more than just a bit silly, but it is Cage’s performance that breathes life into the desiccated one-last-job/bad father-with-a-violent-past genres. He’s letting his freak flag fly, having fun, and it shows.
“The Retirement Plan” isn’t a great movie, even by the standards of Cage’s choppy resume, but it doesn’t take itself too seriously, and neither should you.
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