‘SCORE TO SETTLE’ FEATURES DIALED-DOWN NICOLAS CAGE
Director Shawn Ku made something of a splash with his first big-screen film, “Beautiful Boy,” nearly a decade ago, the story of what happens to a family when the 18-year-old son commits a mass shooting and then kills himself. (That’s not to be confused with the 2018 movie of the same name starring Steve Carell and Timothée Chalamet.)
After working in television, Ku returns for his second film, “A Score to Settle,” which also deals with a violent familial rupture and its after-effects. Unlike its predecessor though, there is no buzz on this one, and it isn’t getting much of a theatrical release before being shuffled off to the world of video-on-demand.
If its distribution is taken as a sign of quality, that wouldn’t be quite accurate. While flawed, “A Score to Settle” has affecting moments and features a mostly restrained performance from Nicolas Cage, who manages to keep from going over the edge until nearly the end. (And if you think that every straight-to-video movie these days stars Cage, you’re not far off the mark. According to IMDb, he had six films in 2018, and he’s on track for more than that through 2020.)
Cage is Frank, a guy wrongly imprisoned for murder who gets out after 19 years because of his deteriorating health. He only has one thing on his mind: vengeance against the gangsters for whom he took the fall. But two things
are holding him back. One is his son, Joey (Noah Le Gros), a recovering addict who implores Frank not to continue the cycle of violence. The other is Simone (Karolina Wydra), a prostitute half his age who develops feelings for him. (Ho-hum, here we go again with the prostitute with a heart of gold storyline.)
The film’s best moments involve Frank and Joey trying to reconnect, after so many years apart, while Frank wrestles with his dilemma. The worst are his dealings with his old criminal frenemies, specifically Jimmy (Mohamed Karim), who seems more like a cartoon villain.
Ku, working from a script by John Stuart Newman (who was involved in the TV series “Get Shorty” and, perhaps tellingly, the soap “Days of Our Lives”), keeps things relatively simple, focusing more on Cage’s performance than lots of run-and-gun action. That may make “A Score to Settle” a better film than it otherwise might be, but those looking for prime, so-bad-it’s-good Nicolas Cage will be disappointed.
“A Score to Settle” isn’t so much a bad film than an unnecessary one.