Vertiges

"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.

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.

Having seen the original movie 'Loft' by Erik Van Looy (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0926762/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1), I was hoping for a fresh take. But a fresh take is obviously not why they hired the same Van Looy to direct this version. This is essentially the same movie, just without subtitles.

In short, the building blocks of 'The Loft' are a set of plot twists. They are mostly silly, suffering from a few red herrings that hurt the story's credibility, but it's still entertaining to watch them unfold. Largely because the movie flows well for the most part, with only a few dull moments in the first half.

Although I preferred the exterior design of the original loft, the overall cinematography of 'The Loft' feels a little warmer and more comfortable. Only a little though, because the characters in it are stone cold. James Marsden is the warmest character in the frame, but like everybody else he doesn't get enough to work with to make for a convincing character that the audience can identify with. The characters are The Loft's biggest flaw (as they were in the original), which is especially disappointing since making you care about characters has often been a strong and successful focus in Bart de Pauw's earlier scripts. There are just too many of them, and as a consequence most of the dialog in the back story scenes is expositional and feels awkward. There's never an opportunity for development. The characters are just there to lead you from one twist to the next.

The overall acting suffers as a result. Strangely I felt that Rhona Mitra, with barely any screen time, delivers one of the better performances, with obvious anger below her coldness, yet just enough restrain. Wentworth Miller does what he does best. He doesn't seem to care much, but still feels like a good fit, even with the little information we get for his character. Matthias Schoenaerts' presence is undeniable. But as a guy who seems to be on edge pretty much all the time, his marriage seems plainly unlikely, and his past couldn't be revealed more clumsily. Still, he's a welcome contrast to the otherwise held back main cast. It's a pity that he was clearly suffering from sickness or fatigue in a few scenes, where it's blatantly obvious how much he had to strain his voice. It's arguably suiting his character, but it's still distracting.

The concept of this story lends itself to a much darker movie, and this just feels like a missed opportunity. I can't help but wonder how this would've worked as a film noir. You have five characters that could easily be despicable and instantly more interesting, and the women couldn't be more fatale. Of course, film noir doesn't sell anymore, so instead we get a bright and shiny thriller that doesn't thrill, that keeps you guessing, but doesn't make you ask questions. It deals with edgy themes, but it barely skims them and focuses on polish instead.

7/10. It's definitely an enjoyable watch, but only for people who're into the whole whodunit thing. Not if you're looking for anything more. It's successful at what it is and doesn't pretend to be anything else, but I can't help but sense the potential for something more.

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 .

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.