The Loft centers on five married men as they share a loft for their various extramarital affairs. But when a body is found in a pool of blood on the bed, the five friends must band together and figure out which one of them is the killer. Directed by Eric Von Looy, The Loft is a sleazy and, at times, incoherent mystery thriller that is paced very well and stands out as one of the first possible guilty pleasures of 2015. To start off, this is a movie that has very little substance, gives just enough to keep you interested and captivates you by making you ask yourself, just how ridiculous can this film get? The answer, very. But that doesn't mean you can't enjoy it for what it is. Starring Karl Urban, James Marsden, Wentworth Miller, Mathias Schoenaerts, and Eric Stonestreet, the cast has very little to work with here in regards of a script but manage to pull off some decent performances considering the circumstances. The real standout here is Schoenaerts who plays the volatile Philip, younger brother to Marsden's Chris. While the rest of the cast seems to sleepwalk through roles each have played dozens of times, Schoenaerts' performance seems to be the strongest and most passionate. He makes for a very electrifying watch whenever he's on screen. The screenplay, adapted from the original Belgium film, also done by Looy, is a mess. It has terrible dialog, to which the actors actually make sound not half bad but when you break it down, it is nowhere near as strong as it should be. Another thing that is just as weak are the characters, while some are well rounded and thought provoking, some just seem like stand ins. When a film like The Loft comes around, characters should be the most important aspect of it. But, as it turns out, The Loft isn't as strong as it should be and it really hampers some of the better plot vehicles that are devised here. The direction from Looy is efficient and very well done in regards to delivering a Hitchcock inspired film like this, the angles are out of the box and that really makes for an intoxicating watch. While Looy may show his maverick style visually, conceptually, the film feels more on the level of a midnight feature which is probably where it will end up. Overall, The Loft isn't a bad way to spend a rainy day but for those looking for something more than your average thriller will walk away disappointed.
