(spoilers) Just saw a screening of this at the Egyptian in Hollywood, with Cage & Franco & Suvari appearing afterward for a Q&A session. Basically you've got a story of a hustler (Franco) who was groomed for the biz by his mother. He's trying to escape the life but his mom and his new girlfriend (Suvari) are trying to keep him in it. The film was strangely truncated- big parts of how the Suvari and Franco characters formed their relationship doesn't show up on screen, so the 'love' story that forms the spine of the story doesn't really have any resonance for the audience. I think Cage let his actors have a little too much reign in their choices, but it may be the fault of the script for not fleshing out the relationships. Some of the scenes were very compelling and even funny, especially one where Sonny dresses up as a policeman and does a trick for a woman who wants to do some roleplaying. All in all though, we're just not as engaged as the filmmakers want us to be in the central relationships of the film. Peripheral relationships are almost more fully realized than central ones throughout the film. Harry Dean Stanton especially is wonderful.
