El penthouse

We have five men, all approaching middle-age and hungering for their inconsequential days of drinking and screwing anything in sight. They are Vince (Karl Urban), a married architect, Luke (Wentworth Miller), a married diabetic who finds himself going along with his friends more often than not, Chris (James Marsden), a married psychiatrist, Marty (Eric Stonestreet), a married, loudmouth alcoholic, and Phillip (Matthias Schoenaerts), Chris's married half-brother. In efforts to try and replicate those days, Vince gives each of his pals a key to a loft in a building he designed. There are only five keys made for this particular room, which mimics the design of a lavish presidential suite. Here, the men can unleash their wildest fantasies and never worry about getting caught. It isn't until Luke ventures up to the loft to find a nude woman murdered and handcuffed to the bed of the loft that things begin to unravel. With this, the men begin to reveal to each other, and their spouses, their intentions and their ugly path of adultery.

I'm always up for a good erotic thriller and Erik Van Looy's The Loft is serviceable genre-fare, by that standard. Van Looy apparently felt the story was significant enough to warrant a Dutch-language, Belgian adaptation in 2008 before working on this American version in 2011. Despite being shot in the summer of 2011, the film went through a shift in distributors when the head of Dark Castle Entertainment at Warner Bros. moved offices to Universal. After that, he sat on the film, choosing to release other projects and keep The Loft on the shelf until releasing it with minimal promotion during the dumping ground month of January 2015 in America.

On that basis alone, in addition to being an erotic thriller, a generally tough sell, the American version of The Loft is destined to bear some obscurity in future years. However, what makes this genre work is the elements of sexiness and contempt, which this film has in mass amounts. The erotic flare in Nicolas Karakatsanis's cinematography, heavy on the lavish details and the red textures, and John Frizzell's equal parts sensual and ominous score really make The Loft work for its genre. The contempt element comes in when we realize just how unlikable all of the characters are here. When we are lead down a path of twists and turns, most of which clearly written by the writing team of Bart De Pauw and Wesley Strick, it's clear we cannot trust any of these characters and that makes the experience that much more intriguing.

The Loft, however, has its own share of shortcomings, most of which come in the acting department. Without a doubt, for a mainstream release, this has some of the shakiest acting I have seen in quite sometime. James Marsden constantly feels awkward, giving a deer-in-headlights-esque performance throughout the entire film. His lines delivery carries a certain wooden quality, and isn't assisted by the likes of Urban or Miller, both of whom have their own share of overacting as well. Probably the film's most animated is Stonestreet, given his roly-poly nature, but the acting here brings the film down significant notches, especially in the more climactic sequences.

Furthermore, the downside of there being no likable characters makes it inevitably difficult to care what happens to anyone by the end of the film. While the element of distrust works wonders for the ability to resonate with characters in a film, it makes the outcome less impacting because you find yourself not rooting for anyone in the long run - not even an antihero but a series of unreliable, contemptible souls.

The Loft takes an underrated territory that finds itself charted less and less in the current day and tries to invoke it with some sort of life and substance. While it succeeds aesthetically, it's disappointing on a character level and on an acting level as well. The efforts to get this film a release in America likely wasn't worth the laborious process and the agonizing wait for a release.

Starring: James Marsden, Karl Urban, Wentworth Miller, Eric Stonestreet, Matthias Schoenaerts, Isabel Lucas, Rhona Mitra, and Rachael Taylor.

The Loft is a murder mystery, directed by Erik Van Looy who also happened to direct the original Belgium film (loft) 2008. This remake follows the same story of five uncommitted husbands who struggle to sustain a relationship and to keep it in their pants. They are conveniently given access to a secret love dungeon where they can seek their mistresses and cheat on their wives. Shortly after somebody is "murdered" in the loft, the five begin to suspect each other and from there on the over complex CSI episode arises.

Ill start off praising the positives, since the film did have potential. The cinematography is miraculous. The unique sense of direction makes every shot look great. The script is somewhat lethargic but thankfully the "majority" of the cast pull it off. Each character was evenly distributed and explored, creating fairly interesting protagonists and slight emotional attachment. The score raised tension when necessary and kept me guessing on the edge of my seat. But after the 100th twist, the suspense and fascination quickly dissolved. The loft has simply out smarted itself, a simple, yet at times intriguing plot desperately seeks for every twist and turn it can find and uses them, I don't even think M. Night Shyamalan could've handled it. Things started to drag and seem all over the place. It is one big puzzle with one too many pieces. Overall a fun, entertaining sexual thriller. Nothing more, nothing less.

I was surprised how good this film was. I usually figure out who done its before the reveal but I didn't with this one. It can be a bit confusing jumping around from past and present but that adds to the mystery. Its a smart movie and we don't get those that often. Performances are good- most actors seemed to be a bit out of their typical roles. Wentworth Miller was very different from Prison Break and its nice to see Karl Urban break away from SciFi/Fantasy franchises. Eric Stonestreet was very different from his TV role and James Mardsen showed the conflict of someone going against their norm. Also, it was nice to have a movie this length- not so long its hard to stand up when the film is done. Its a shame the studio didn't really back it and do any advertising. I never saw a TV spot- just a preview. They also kept pushing back the release date. Its a shame this one will just probably fade into DVD obscurity because its good and entertaining.

The movie started nicely,, with flipping between the moment of now in the investigation room and the moment where they found the body in the loft and the one year and between flashbacks .. Even though it had five different stories it was actually easily understandable.

The Idea of the movie is fresh and new for Hollywood and the plot flows smoothly in the first half an hour of the movie there are no much puzzles to think about but who really between those five guys did it !! until you start to think maybe it's one of the guys mistresses. then you jump to accuse everyone who speaks Latin, then everyone becomes a killer in your eyes :D .

So to be fair the screenplay writing appears so tight and consistent .. with just a couple of unexpected surprise in the end ;)

With the same director as the Belgian version of the movie Erik Van Looy and pretty much the same writers i'v heard they kept it just as it went in the original. Even though i kinda preferred to watch the original movie because the originals always better but i mean who can stand almost 2 hours of translated Dutch movie !! :P

As for the cast, the Leads whom i only know from TV they were all engaging and well invested in their roles, Karl Urban, James Marsden, Wentworth Miller and Eric Stonestreet and even the short appearances of Matthias Schoenaerts who was actually in the original Belgian movie "Loft (2008)".

Overall it went fine,, well at least let's say better than what i'v read in some reviews .

"The Loft" is a remake of a Belgian film, and focuses on five married men who go in on a ritzy high rise loft for the purposes of pursuing their affairs and sexual escapades. When a girl winds up dead in a pool of blood in the loft, the five men panic as they attempt to unravel who she is and where she came from.

Taking some cues from Hitchcock (and not exactly with a fraction of Hitch's poise), "The Loft" is an overall entertaining film, but the script at times is the equivalent of a cheap Rubik's cube— it looks fine, it's a fun puzzle, I guess, but it's really just not that impressive overall.

The film shifts between past and present, unraveling the narrative through flashbacks which are sandwiched between the current dilemma of the four men arguing in the loft over the corpse of the dead blonde. The pacing is a bit choppy, and the transitions rather abrupt. James Marsden and Wentworth Miller are among the film's greatest star power here, but the cast overall is really underwhelming, and the performances are at times borderline campy as the men play up their roles as buffoonish plutocratic mattress hounds.

The finale cements my feelings of the film as an underwhelming thriller that seems more suited for television than the silver screen, but I still can't say it was totally not worth the time. In spite of the hammy performances, the disjointed narrative, and the overall sensibility of utter lifelessness that the film has, it is still by and large an entertaining flick. Nearly impossible to take seriously, but for entertainment's sake, it's passable. 5/10.