No matter the role or movie, Nicolas Cage reliably makes fascinating choices that captivate and frequently entertain. So, it goes without saying that Cage playing an enigmatic gun-wielding madman sounds like the perfect foil for Joel Kinnaman’s straight-man in the cat-and-mouse road thriller Sympathy for the Devil. Despite Cage’s presence and the pulpy stylings, though, this chamber piece frequently threatens to fall asleep at the wheel.

Sympathy for the Devil introduces its protagonist, credited only as The Driver (Kinnaman), as a doting dad dropping his son off with his mother-in-law before heading to the hospital where his wife is in labor with their second child. The Driver pulls into the parking garage only for a strange man with bright red hair and a snazzy suit to calmly slide into his backseat and hold him at gunpoint. The Passenger ignores all please and instructs The Driver to head out toward an undisclosed location, kickstarting a violent game where not everything is as it appears.

Director Yuval Adler and writer Luke Paradise shroud their crime thriller in mystery by withholding information about The Passenger for as long as possible while using visual language to suggest the possibility of the supernatural. Could The Passenger be the devil? There’s a comfortable, confident swagger to him with an underlying menace that constantly threatens to erupt into violence. The Passenger also happens to dress in the devil’s favorite colors, red and black. The Las Vegas setting and the vibrant red hues filling the frame also feel suggestive of the devil toying with a milquetoast family man. It’s the prolonged question of “why” that haunts this chamber piece.

All of it winds up a smokescreen for a relatively straightforward, bland affair. Despite a teasing air of the supernatural, Adler plays this crime thriller straight. That means a push-and-pull series of conversations between The Driver and The Passenger, intercut by occasional scenes of violence whenever they cross paths with an unfortunate soul(s). Cage continues his streak for imbuing his characters with eccentricities that engage; here, his attempts at a Boston accent and gleeful affinity for violence liven up the otherwise quiet thriller. Kinnaman doesn’t fare as well. His mild-mannered Driver must keep things close to the chest for far too long, leaving the actor without much to do beyond reacting to The Passenger’s antics.

Adler’s efficient direction and a Cage unleashed aren’t enough to keep viewers on the hook in this sparse story. In the steadfast commitment to preserving any narrative turns, it also withholds characterization that might help audiences invest in an otherwise familiar setup. Despite hints at horror leanings, Sympathy for the Devil plays it safe with a crime thriller that never lives up to its promise to go off the rails. Nor does it manage to evoke sympathy for any of its central players. By the time Sympathy for the Devil finally reveals its hand, it’s too little too late.

Sympathy for the Devil releases in theaters on July 28, 2023.