Quartile rating: 5/10 · 1 rating
Evan Lake, a veteran CIA agent, has been ordered to retire. But when his protégé uncovers evidence that Lake's nemesis, the terrorist Banir, has resurfaced, Lake goes rogue, embarking on a perilous, intercontinental mission to eliminate his sworn enemy.
Dying of the Light is a troubled production—director Paul Schrader publicly disowned the cut released by the studio—and it shows. The plot is a fairly generic rogue-agent revenge thriller with little to distinguish it beyond Nicolas Cage's committed performance and some interesting thematic material about aging and obsession that never fully develops. The cinematography is flat and unremarkable, consistent with a low-budget production that received minimal studio support. Novelty is limited; the premise of a veteran spy going rogue to settle old scores is well-trodden ground, and while Schrader's original vision may have been more distinctive, the released version feels formulaic. The ending is unsatisfying, partly a consequence of the editorial interference that gutted the film's ambitions. Cage and Anton Yelchin bring more to their roles than the material deserves, keeping Acting slightly above the overall mediocre waterline.