The Loft (2015) | Film Review

Imagine if you and four of your married friends had zero trust issues and decided to go in partners on a gorgeous downtown loft to share for your respective conquests. All is going well until a random woman is discovered brutally murdered, while also being handcuffed to the bed, in this very same loft. All of the five of you are present, and you are the only ones with access keys. Imagine if one of your friends were a murderer.

This is the setup for the latest remake of a popular Belgium film, also titled The Loft. The original film’s director, Erik Van Looy, returns to helm his own remake and this is a concept ripe for conflicted emotions. Right off the bat, you have five characters we all know full well are capable of duplicitous actions. These are men who, for the most part, gleefully enjoy sexual trysts outside of their loving homes. They’re cheating SOBs! What makes this take on murder-mysteries so fascinating is that there is truly no one here actually worth rooting FOR.

That doesn’t stop Looy from trying, though, as he predictably sets up the classic archetypes: Chris (James Marsden), the hopeless romantic; Vincent (Karl Urban), the cocky player; Luke (Wentworth Miller), the quiet creeper; Marty (Modern Family’s Eric Stonestreet), the alcoholic loser; and Phillip (Matthias Schoenaerts, also in the original film) as Chris’ coked up, hothead brother. Any one of these douchebags could be the culprit and, as the film progresses, it becomes a cinematic version of Clue as the audience tries to sort through all of the red herrings to piece together what is really going on.

The Loft is told in a very non-linear fashion, starting with the murder and then ping-ponging all over time putting the puzzle together. This works in the film’s favor as each time we feel we have the story mapped out, another character’s arc comes into play and all hope is once again lost. As side-characters, wives, and mistresses come into play; who actually done it emerges as one brutal game of Three-Card Monty.

Does it work? Mostly, yes. Looy has a strong grasp of ratcheting up the tension, unfortunately some of the dialogue carries enough cheese for a Christmas platter. At one point, a character attempting to explain that she is a prostitute, apparently requires 3 different versions of what that actually means to sink the notion into our hero’s head. Perhaps I am a little rusty on dating lingo, but ‘I’m a whore’ felt fairly clear. This is not a reel-killer by any means, but some of these cheesier moments keep The Loft from joining the upper echelon of thrillers discussed by fans in film circles.

The concept works well enough and Looy’s cast does an admirable job creating characters we root for regardless of what awful people they seem to be. Marsden and Urban in particular take what are written as one-note manipulators-turned-victims and turn them into fully realized characters I could gain a vested interest in, something that becomes increasingly important as we approach the film’s shocking conclusion.

Thankfully, that twist within The Loft is intelligent enough to work with head-nodding approval, as opposed to many films of the same ilk who seem as though the writers simply jammed a last second revelation in just to throw us off-guard. The film maintains a strong sense of atmospheric peril throughout, and as dramatic as that final turn of the screws is, it slowly begins to make logical sense and we are left with a murder-mystery worth its salt.

While the film never quite achieves its loftier ambitions, it is intriguing enough to overcome its B-level trappings. This is a film any thriller or Hitchcock fan should give a chance too.

Although, it might be best to skip a viewing with your significant other. The Loft is the very antithesis of a ‘date movie’. Trust me, we’re friends. Right?

Starring James Marsden, Karl Urban, Wentworth Miller
Written by Wesley Strick
Directed by Erik Van Looy

Aaron Peterson
The Hollywood Outsider