Dying Of The Light

Dying Of The Light

When Evan Lake (Academy Award Winner Nicolas Cage), a veteran CIA agent recently diagnosed with Dementia, learns that his lifelong nemesis, Banir (Alexander Karim), has resurfaced--Lake becomes 

Top Customer Reviews

2.0 out of 5 starsDirector and stars all disowned this version of movie.

By Joseph H Smart on December 7, 2014

Format: Amazon Video

Nicholas Cage plays a former CIA field agent who has been obsessed for 22 years over a terrorist that everyone assumes is dead but that he believes is still alive. On the same day he finds out that he has an aggressive and incurable disease of the brain a coworker comes to him with proof that his dead nemesis might indeed be alive, although very likely terminally ill himself. Suffering from the onset of dementia and displaying troubling symptoms that make it clear he won't be functional for much longer, Cage decides to track down and kill his enemy, which he thinks will allow himself to close the book on his life in a satisfying way.

The behind-the-scenes story of Dying of the Light is that producers hired Paul Schrader to write and direct a movie and then decided that they didn't really want a Paul Schrader film after all. It happened before, most famously with his Exorcist prequel. Writer/director Paul Schrader, stars Nicolas Cage and Anton Yelchin and original director/associate producer Nicolas Winding Refn have all disowned this version of the movie. Contractually barred from disparaging the finished product the men let their feelings be known by being photographed wearing t-shirts with the non-disparagement clause printed on the front.

Reportedly the producers re-cut Dying of the Light without Schrader's input but did not do any re-shoots so everything that's in the movie was actually written and directed by Schrader. The apparent problem is that Schrader was making a thoughtful and melancholy film and the producers re-cut it with the ill-fitting rhythms of a 24 episode.

3.0 out of 5 starsMostly just underwhelming

By Robert Hayes on December 29, 2014

Format: Amazon Video Verified Purchase

The big story associated with this film is that its director, Paul Schrader, was locked out of the editing room and denied final cut. Subsequently, Schrader and the stars have disowned this version. However, despite their reaction out of principle, DYING OF THE LIGHT isn't that terrible. It's merely underwhelming. Nicolas Cage gives a decent performance as Evan Lake, a veteran CIA agent with recently diagnosed dementia. Upon receiving some intelligence which indicates that a former target may still be alive, he decides to go after them before his disease puts him out of commission permanently. At its core, this film has an interesting concept that is never fully realized to its full thematic potential: two nemeses have one final reckoning while each are battling a debilitating disease. From what I saw, Nicolas Cage put in some good character work, and even gets to "rage" a little bit, but he was still hampered by an editing job that seemed to be going for a more streamlined thriller. Due to this, it felt like there was a fair amount of character development missing, mostly from supporting players but also from Cage himself. His disease doesn't take as big of a role as you might think, given its severity. As far as the rest of the cast is concerned, everyone did a good job but they really weren't given a whole lot to work with. Anton Yelchin was the only other name actor I recognized, and his presence seemed rather perfunctory. Perhaps he would have had a larger role in Paul Schrader's cut, but we'll probably never know unless it gets released on Blu-ray/DVD. All of the technical aspects of the film were good, although it did have the rather depressing color palette associated with low-budget Eastern European thrillers