I enjoyed this film from the start. It was truly a hidden gem.
Gary Faulkner (Nicolas Cage) is a blue-collar compatriot currently on dialysis for kidney disease. Gary claims to have a vision where God comes to him, urging that he travel to Pakistan and capture Osama Binladen for the good of the American people. This message, combined with a deep-rooted love for his country lead him to do just that! On several occasions police report catching him attempting to cross the Afghan border carrying guns, knives, hash, and even Christian scripture.
Larry Charles has directed some fairly controversial material over his lifetime including Curb Your Enthusiasm (2000-2017), Religulous (2008), and Bruno (2009). Everyone likely expected his film to poke fun at Gary Faulkner for loud political biases. But that would have been too easy. It speaks to Larry Charles' directorial authenticity that he did not take the bait with this one and run with it.
Cage has a pretty bad track record for the better part of his career. And while this film failed pretty miserably from opening weekend to nearly being a "straight to DVD" title, it was a very enjoyable story.
This movie has a striking resemblance to "Adaptation (2002)" (Cage as lead). Both of these have lead characters with a sociopath feel and are coincidentally two of Cage's strongest performances to date.
Be sure to stay for the closing credits if you like to see actual imagery about the people and events a film is based depicting. I particularly enjoyed the footage of Faulkner when he is on The Late Show with David Letterman. Avoid (at all costs) going off to research David Faulkner until after watching this. The experience will be all the better for it.
----- 8/10 STARS -------- Review by Searsino -----