Review of The Loft (2014) by Michael R — 07 Nov 2015

The Loft is a thriller movie in which Vincent (Karl Urban) an architect gives keys to a special loft in a building he has designed to his friends Luke (Wentworth Miller), Chris (James Marsden), Marty (Eric Stonestreet), and Phillip (Matthais Schoenaerts). They coordinate a schedule and are allowed to use the loft to do whatever they please, which some take as a way to cheat on their wives, throw parties, and get away from their daily lives. This all gets tense when Luke discovers a dead body from one of their many affairs and then a conspiracy unravels.

Things I Liked:

The Leads. The five leads all do a solid job and fit their roles well. They take what could have been 5 similar and forgettable characters and make them all unique and memorable. Each one has their role to fill in this group of friends and each one has their own story to tell.

Things I Didn't Like:

The Tone. The movie takes itself far too seriously. Every moment is super dramatic and everyone has a super important secret of some sort. The whole thing is almost consistently melodramatic and over the top. And by the end the movie is so ridiculous that you can hardly take it seriously.

The Characters. While the actors make the characters interesting, they are all horrible people. They all suck in their own way and you don't care what happens to any of them by the end of the movie. There is no reason to want redemption for even the best of them and there is no dramatic tension when you feel like one might harm or kill another one.

Overall:

Overall the movie is too overly serious and lacks any relatable characters. The actors do a fine job with they are given but they can only carry the movie so far. It is too dark constantly, the plot is convoluted at points and the characters are all sucky people. The movie is well made but the content and characters drag down the other elements and leave this less than enjoyable.