Pig

This excellent movie, starring Nicolas Cage, is about grief and loss. Filmed over 20 days, it’s a simple and simply-made movie in which only the two main characters are defined at all. The rest of the sparse cast are mere brush strokes that are loosely painted only to help tell the story.

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The premise: A man with a respected past, that he wants nothing to do with, lives in the forest with his pig. One night, thieves take away the pig and brutally assault the man in the process.

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The simple plot is Man Seeks Pig, but the film is carried along by the power of Cage’s acting and the intense feelings he embodies.

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After the assault, he doesn't clean the blood and fluids off his person until the very last scene. That creative choice, which adds a dissonant note to the film (because it makes us comfortable), goes a long way to get across the idea that the guy is pure and doesn’t want to hide the fact that something terrible has happened to him.

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The film is ostensibly broken into three pieces, each section corresponding with a meal. But that device doesn’t really work here because food is not one of the characters.

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Regardless, for all the quiet intensity, this is a beautiful movie. And not just because it is set in Portland, Oregon. It's also beautiful because there is a lot of silence, a lot of long shots of a distraught Nicolas Cage, a lot of feeling.