Written by Karl Gajdusek, of the TV series "Dead Like Me," Trespass looks as if it has the nugget of a good idea, and it could have made a good movie, but this is not it.
Slick salesman Kyle (Nicolas Cage) deals in diamonds to support his lovely wife Sarah (Nicole Kidman) and pretty teen daughter Avery (Liana Liberato). His work is interrupted one night when a quartet of burglars invades the house, looking for loose diamonds and/or piles of cash. Their plan goes quickly awry when Kyle begins using his salesman skills to find an advantage. At first it looks like Kyle is merely trying to save his family, but eventually it becomes evident that he is trying to hide a desperate secret. Unfortunately, he's not the only one.
Director Joel Schumacher is a 30-year Hollywood veteran with some interesting films on his resume (Flatliners, Falling Down, Tigerland, Phone Booth, etc.), but also a great many turkeys (Batman & Robin, Bad Company, etc.). He can't quite get the tone right on this one, starting out pitched a bit too high, and going even higher as the movie goes on.
Rather than generating suspense, the movie simply becomes irritating. Rather than becoming an intellectual chess game, it becomes a rather sloppy game of 52 pick-up, with coincidence and abandoned threads ruling the day. Likewise, poor Cage can't seem to find a center for his character, and he comes across more like a madman than a loving father. Kidman, however, manages some of her usual grace, and Ben Mendelsohn makes a commanding villain.
Not to be confused with Walter Hill's Trespass (1992), starring Bill Paxton, Ice Cube, and Ice-T.
Trespass
** out of ****
With Nicolas Cage, Nicole Kidman, Cam Gigandet, Ben Mendelsohn, Liana Liberato, Jordana Spiro, Dash Mihok, Emily Meade
Written by Karl Gajdusek
Directed by Joel Schumacher
Rated R for violence and terror, pervasive language and some brief drug use.
91 minutes
Opens October 14, 2011
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