Watching the cinematic progression of Nicolas Cage is such an enjoyable part of being a regular movie-goer. He dives so far into his own idiosyncrasies, that it’s tough to not enjoy his roles as much as he is enjoying them. With Renfield, he takes a turn at a direct follow-up to Bela Lugosi’s immortal performance.
Renfield follows the narrative of its titular character (played by Nicholas Hoult). He has been in the service of his master, Count Dracula for over a century, but he’s getting tired of the way he’s being treated. Renfield doesn’t exactly have a soul anymore, but he doesn’t see eye to eye with his master’s plan or appetites.
While looking for creative ways to satiate Dracula’s thirst, Renfield stumbles onto a mob hit and becomes the target of a spoiled mob son (Ben Schwartz). Renfield would rather be left alone, but gets drawn into a vengeful pursuit of the mob by a traffic cop (Awkwafina).
There’s a really clever theme behind Renfield. Yes, the trailers have shown Renfield taking part in a support group for those with codependency issues, but whenever the movie comes back to these themes, it feels like the most clever take on the relationship between the classic monster and his familiar. Every time Dracula talks to his servant, he displays pure narcissism, and the writing excels in displaying the go-to techniques of a victim blamer.
The issue is, there are not nearly enough scenes of Cage and Hoult together. What little we get is great, but outside of their interactions, we get a tonal mish-mash that will largely be forgotten once you leave the theater.
Incorporating a mob plot-line does a ton to justify a large body count, but it feels like something that was cooked up in the 90s. The acting of Cage and Hoult is good enough that they could have easily been given a script about their issues and history and spliced that with the levity of the support group. Instead, we get a wise-cracking Awkwafina and hammy Ben Schwartz taking up way too much time in a very short movie (93 minutes).
To possibly help the mob plot go down easier, they douse this movie in uber-violence and CG blood. When Renfield eats bugs, he gets massive power and is able to rip off human limbs without much effort. Literally in one scene, he rips a guy’s arms off and beats others with them. Then, he throws the arms into two of his enemies and impales them against the wall? I added a question mark because maybe it’s me who doesn’t understand physics, surely the movie understands them… The violence is bombastic and bordering on Last Action Hero territory. It’s all good fun and got some chuckles out of me, but still feels unnecessary when we just want to see Cage’s odd delivery of Dracula talk down to Renfield.
Renfield works because of its two leads. Nicolas Cage and Nicholas Hoult have such great chemistry and comedic timing together. Their half of the movie is the only reason that makes this movie worth its time in the sun. The theme of escaping toxic relationships with narcissists is so cleverly built in, but sadly forgotten throughout much of the movie. The Awkwafina plot where she wants to take down the mob only serves to drive a stake through any life that movie has. C+
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