It’s a terrific role for Cage, whose widest smile always contains a flicker of anguish. And Caine is excellent as the unattainable father figure in this enjoyably downbeat tale of the flipside of career success

Written by Steve Conrad, this is the smartest script director Gore Verbinski has ever had, and he makes the most of it, aided by a strong cast.

It's a deeply honest and comic performance and seems filled with all the genuine humiliations that one imagines Cage himself has suffered in the past 10 years.

Yet another retread of Cage's weak formula of a gloomy man examining his life.