If you’re ever interested in experiencing a hallucination through film, Werner Herzog’s “Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans” is certainly it. The film is carried entirely by Nicolas Cage, who easily gives one of the best performances of his career. He gleefully and viciously bites his teeth into the role of Terence McDonough. Cage plays a cop in post-Katrina New Orleans who hurt his back saving an imprisoned man from the rising floodwaters of Katrina. His addiction to Vicodin morphed into a need for a better high, resulting in McDonough’s constant search for a fix of his new drug of choice: cocaine. And oftentimes, McDonough does get his fix, before going to work, after work, and even during his investigations.
Cage plays the character in such a fascinating way; you can’t help but keep your eyes on him and be entertained by him. In one of the more disturbing scenes in a film this year, McDonough is demanding answers from two elderly women. After refusing to provide him with answers, McDonough snatches one septuagenarian’s oxygen tube and holds it hostage from her, forcing her friend to offer the answers McDonaugh is looking for, while the woman without her oxygen begins to suffocate.
The story centers on the homicide investigation of five Sengalese people who were found murdered in their home. McDonough is investigating the case, but he also deals with paying off his gambling debts on college football games, sustaining his love for prostitute (an absolutely delightful Eva Mendes) and warding off the men after her, as well as dealing with his alcoholic father and his wife. As all of these problems continue to plague McDonough, he finds his vices and his daily tribulations caving in on him as he continues his desperate spiral downward in the seedy underbelly of New Orleans, a world of drugs, murder, and corruption.
It was a magical pairing to combine the madness of director Werner Herzog with the equal lunacy of Nicolas Cage. Famous for 1982’s trippy “Fitcarraldo,” Herzog once joked that he should go to an insane asylum. His most notable recent work was “Red Dawn,” starring an emaciated Christian Bale, but the director is most known for his documentaries. Herzog puts his own mark on “Bad Lieutenant” by wonderfully surreal hallucinations, seen through the eyes of the camera. From strange shots of reptiles, to the break dancing “soul” of a dead man in the middle of a living room, the audience comes to understand that these are the delirious visions of McDonough. The film is shot in a feverish sort of way, with shaky camera shots and odd angles that accentuate the idea that the film itself seems to be a hallucination.
Eva Mendes is more than capable of holding her own next to joyfully out-of-control Cage, as her prostitute Frankie adds a quiet but commanding presence. Mendes creates a tiny sense of stability in McDonough’s undisciplined, corrupted world. Rapper X-zibit (yes, of "Pimp My Ride" fame) and Val Kilmer also star in this film. The area of New Orleans adds its own sort of other-worldly and organic character, making McDonough’s actions seem fitting.
Overall, the story of the film fades away as Cage pulls his wonderfully unhinged character in a bright and brilliant focus into the forefront of your attention. As McDonough howls at a pharmacist for taking too long to fill his prescription, the audience watches in horror as he pulls outs his gun, takes matters into his own hands, and steals the Vicodin he needs. Cage’s McDonough is a one man circus act: bizarre, disturbing, but always undeniably and gleefully entertaining. One can only hope that a future project couples this director and actor once more, because the first time out proves to be an unbalanced joyride that had me watching in both horror and fascination, but keeping me pinned to my seat, wondering what Cage’s character was going to do next.
Rating: 3 Stars/ 5
Where to Find It: Out on DVD
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