National Treasure: Book of Secrets Is More of the Same, and That is a Very Good Thing!
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In 2004’s National Treasure, Nicolas Cage’s Benjamin Franklin Gates famously has to steal the Constitution for honorable, even heroic reasons. In its delightful 2007 sequel Cage’s overgrown Boy Scout and his crew must kidnap the President of the United States (Bruce Greenwood), once again for noble purposes.
In the upcoming third entry in the series, the heroes will probably be called upon to murder the Pope in a way that will somehow benefit humanity for perpetuity.
The National Treasure franchise started out gleefully ridiculous and just keeps getting sillier and sillier. I mean that as high praise.
When we last caught up with Benjamin Franklin Gates (you can tell that Gates is a true flag-fucker by his name alone!) he, love interest Dr. Abigail Chase (Diane Kruger) and geeky sidekick/computer guy Riley Poole (Justin Bartha) had just discovered a vast fortune.
In the tried and true tradition of sequels, National Treasure: Book of Secrets begins with a re-set. Cage’s pure-hearted adventurer is world famous for his heroics but only when the screenplay calls for it.
Riley made, and then lost millions from the big discovery at the end of the first film. He’s written a book about his experiences but it’s selling so poorly that at a book signing, deeply disinterested customers treat him more like a bookstore employee than an author.
As an author myself, this bit hit too close to home. There’s nothing funny about sub-par book sales. It’s not something that should be joked about. There are some subjects too serious and tragic for humor, like the Holocaust, child molestation, sexual assault and books under-performing commercially.
Before Riley can get too dispirited by what is honestly one of the hardest things anyone has to deal with he and his boss must clear the good name of one of Gates’ ancestors when the villainous Mitchell "Mitch" Wilkinson (Ed Harris) shows up at one of Ben’s speeches and accuses Thomas great-great-grandfather of being involved in the assassination of Abraham Lincoln.
Benjamin Franklin Gates is so patriotic that the blood of bald eagles courses through his body. So he does not take kindly to someone accusing his family of being filthy, traitorous Lincoln-killers.
So Benjamin, Riley and Dr. Abigail Chase, who is now Benjamin’s ex, gallivant about the globe with two primary objectives: proving that honorable Thomas Chase was not, in fact, in league with John Wilkes Booth and finding a fabled lost city of Gold.
Because National Treasure: Book of Secrets is a Jerry Bruckheimer production and consequently has all the money in the world to blow every member of its hero’s immediate family is played by an Academy Award winner.
Cage of course won for Leaving Las Vegas, Jon Voight, the actor who plays his father Patrick Henry Gates, won for Coming Home and Helen Mirren, who joins the franchise as Emily Appleton, Ben’s mom and Patrick’s ex-wife, won an Oscar for Best Actress for The Queen.
Oh, and of course Benjamin Franklin Gates needs to kidnap the President so that he can learn more about the titular book of secrets, a legendary tome passed down from president to president that contains our nation’s myriad secrets.
the titular book of secrets!
Greenwood is an old pro at playing presidents. In Thirteen Days he played JFK and in 2017’s Kingsman: The Golden Circle he played an unnamed president. So it perhaps unsurprising that Greenwood finds the perfect tone for the role, one that combines WASP gravitas with a boyish playfulness.
Greenwood’s POTUS isn’t happy about being tricked and separated from the Secret Service but he recognizes in Benjamin Franklin Gates a kindred spirit and fellow history buff/patriot.
Cage’s true believer is NOT handling his break-up well. He spends much of the first act of the movie agitated and on edge, which plays well to Cage’s strengths as a singularly eccentric actor.
There’s a great scene, for example, where our hero must make a scene in order to attract the attention of security guards and he makes the biggest, most egregiously Nicolas Cage-y scene possible. It is an utter goddamn delight to see Cage crank it up to 11 in this wholesome context.
Later Benjamin Franklin Gates gets into a VERY animated fight with a small child over the Abraham Lincoln assassination and his great, great grandaddy’s possible role in it.
National Treasure: Book of Secrets knows exactly how ridiculous it is and leans into the absurdity without compromising the child-like innocence at its core, its idealistic belief in the innate greatness of our nation and its inhabitants.
This is patriotism porn pure and simple, a movie for dads who make a point of visiting every Civil War battleground and point of historical interest.
National Treasure: Book of Secrets doesn’t deviate from the sturdy template of the first film. It maintains the winning formula of the original. What worked well in the first film continues to work here. Additions like Mirren, Ed Harris (reuniting with his The Rock costar Cage and producer Jerry Bruckheimer) are inspired and Cage’s chemistry with Bartha and Kruger remains strong.
National Treasure remains defiantly, unapologetically dorky, which explains its family appeal even if by definition the action is not as fresh or as novel as it was the first time around. Book of Secrets doesn’t move as briskly as its predecessor and its last half hour or so feels a little generic.
The National Treasure franchise ranks alongside Romancing the Stone and the Brendan Fraser Mummy as the most entertaining Raiders of the Lost Ark knock-offs but at this point I’m considerably more excited about the prospect of more National Treasure than another sad, mercenary go-around for Steven Spielberg, George Lucas and Harrison Ford’s long-in-the-tooth academic/adventurer.
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