mike | 16 Sep 2011 | 649 Views | 1 Likes | 0 Dislikes

TIFF Review: Trespass

Sometimes, you just have to take a shot. The odds can be incalculable, whether or not you're wasting your money as you slide your card into the ticket machine in the lobby of the AMC. Of course, if you're about to take a chance on something starring an actor who only appears in good movies, who seems… normal, and picks good projects directed by filmmakers who have a solid history, the math is easier to do. There are some safe bets out there. Say... Moneyball. That's a safe bet.

But when you're trying to decide whether or not to watch a movie directed by Joel Schumacher and starring Nic Cage, it's a lot harder to figure. So I'll save you the time. Don't see it.

I don't blame you for thinking about it, it could have been great. They both have careers marked with sparkling successes (Schumacher's The Lost Boys and Tigerland in particular, Cage's Leaving Las Vegas and Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans) and hilariously bad stinkers (Batman & Robin and 8mm, The Wicker Man and... 8mm). Had their collaboration worked, it could have been gloriously, spectacularly, crazy good. Instead it's just… not.

Cage is Kyle Johnson, a wealthy diamond dealer/middleman and husband to Sarah (Nicole Kidman) and father to the rebellious Avery (Liana Leberato). About to leave to complete a deal, the couple are attacked by a gang of masked thieves who demand that Kyle open the enormous safe he has hidden behind a painting in his office. Kyle refuses, and the crazy psychological games of Trespass begin.

It's baffling. The film has almost nothing to say, it's predicated on a predictable, goofy and totally pat "twist", it's filled with long, slow-motion shots of Kidman and Cage chewing the scenery so viciously that the combination of performance and shot at times almost seems like Schumacher is parodying himself.

The whole thing ticks along at a frenzied, goofy pace with pretty much everyone in permanent high dudgeon that it's almost possible to forget how bad it all is, but thankfully Schumacher occasionally inserts weirdly stylized flashbacks into the proceedings, and one is able to catch one's horrible breath. It's a disappointing effort for everyone involved.

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