Reféns

When I heard about the new movie "Trespass" the actors were what reeled me in at first. Between Nicole Kidman, Nicolas Cage and Cam Gigandet, I had my hopes set pretty high for a well acted movie; and I was not disappointed in the least. The movie starts off with your typical wealthy family with an angst filled teenage daughter. The marriage of the characters Kyle and Sarah, Nicolas Cage and Nicole Kidman respectively, seems strained at first, with Sarah's needs not being met because of Kyle's being preoccupied with work. When 2 "police officers" come to the house however, terror ensues. A violent hostage situation grips the family and shows how far a father will go for his wife and his daughter. Not only does Nicolas Cage shine as a man with a tortured secret, he embodies how strong a person should be in such a situation. The shocking realism of this movie is bloody, but not too gory, and really thrills you to the last scene. All in all Trespass delivers tenfold and leaves the audience with a final thought: get out, or die trying.

This is the kind of film you should choose when you just want to relax and be entertained. It's not an epic but then - come on lets be honest - Nick Cage's films seldom are. However, they are nearly always enjoyable and even though I can never take him too seriously because of his southern drawl (he never really manages to convince that he is desperate or afraid, does he?) this one is still very watchable.

Accent aside, he gives a good solid performance. (Nicole Kidman, on the other hand, turns in a surprisingly weak one.) The plot is pretty standard, very predictable, but I for one enjoyed it right up to the end so in my opinion it delivered.

As is usually the case when a movie gets bad press, I felt compelled to see it for myself. As a fan of Nicolas Cage and Nicole Kidman, I was also interested to see just how terrible they were.

In actual fact I think the critics have been a little cruel. As other reviewers have commented, this is no groundbreaking piece of work; it's a home invasion story and highlights the lengths people will go to for money (see Panic Room for more details....!). Yes there is a lot of screaming from Nicole and a lot of people saying "run" and no one runs anywhere, but to be fair if I was in their position, I would likely be in a corner papping myself with fear.

It seems that they follow a similar formula to Panic Room, in that the burglars are pretty brutal and one or two of them seem slightly unhinged, but this is clearly a device used to work up tension as they become more panicked and more unpredictable. In a sense I liked this element, which showed something more of the invaders' humanity; their fears and failings.

All in all this is not an amazing film, but nor is it that terrible. It also isn't half as violent as people make out - there is a fair amount of threat but I have seen a lot worse and I am not a fan of violent movies. So 6/10 seems a fair score, although personally I quite enjoyed it - it was easy enough to watch and I was interested enough to keep watching to the end. But maybe that's just me.

This straight to DVD, "paint by numbers" thriller staring Nicolas Cage and Nicole Kidman was one hell of a disappointment. The home invasion sub-genre while popular continually devours itself by its own lack of originality. There were a few moments in Trespass where the story could have taken a much more substantial route but rather then strive for something original the story falls back into the safe "paint by numbers" genre style. So in short - once you've seen one you've seen them all.

I have no idea where it went wrong but there was once a time when Nicolas Cage was hailed as being a great talent of cinema. During the past 10 years I can only count two films that feature the quality of acting he was once known for - 2009's doomsday epic Knowing & 2011's fantastic Drive Angry. There were scenes in Trespass that were obviously meant to be tense & on the edge but they were stripped of that feeling by the sub-par performance of Nicolas Cage as Kyle Miller. I found myself laughing several times when I should have been rooting for his character. He was just that bad. Played by someone else the character of Kyle Miller could have helped anchor this movie a little more and allow it to regain the intensity that it lacked.

The supporting cast (Nicole Kidman included) worked with what they had but I just wasn't able to invest in caring whether they lived or died. Nicole Kidman who is still such a great talent was reduced to spending the majority of this film sobbing and crawling along the ground. There was no need for the character of Sarah Miller (Nicole Kidman) to be played by someone of Kidmans stature. This character could have been played by anyone. The character Avery Miller (Liana Liberato) has a couple of great scenes towards the end of this film.

Trespass had the chance to go down a different route but sadly it went the safe, predictable path that we've all seen before.

I've never written a review before but felt compelled in this case due to the overwhelming number of positive reviews for a film that I felt was somewhat surprising in it's mediocrity considering its cast. Nic Cage does a fine job of subduing his performance and avoiding the tics that make him so Nicholas Cagey, but at some points it seems like a detriment. Coupled with the home invaders failure to produce much of a 'menacing' feel, Nic's performance doesn't do much to stem the movie from it's ultimate failure: a lack of intensity. In fairness, it seemed like more of a script issue; his character didn't seem very realistic.

Kidman's hyperventilating hysteria and sobbing pleas almost seem out of place in such a setting and I couldn't help but wish someone would just slap the bajeesus out of her already to quiet her down. She came close to seeming like a cliché but then it dawns on you that her acting would be right on target were the scenes and script properly conveying the direness of the situation she was responding to.

The bad guys were somewhat typical bad guys and although Ben Mendelsohn stood out with some great acting, in some scenes it could do little to conceal the sense that he was just doing his best to negotiate through some awkward dialogue.

The movie wasn't bad, it was just a bit predictable and boring, and watching it plod along, I kept waiting for it to be over so I could do something else. It's not transfixing, so would make for a great background movie while you do crosswords or something.