Writer: Jerry Rapp (Screenplay)
Starring: Nicolas Cage, Robin Tunney, Marc Blucas, Ernie Lively, Jacque Gray, Kassia Conway
Plot: A couple buy a desert motel where they find that strange, mysterious events occur.
Tagline – Seeing is deceiving.
Runtime: 1 Hour 43 Minutes
There may be spoilers in the rest of the review
Verdict: Anti-Climatic
Story: Looking Glass starts when Ray (Cage) and Maggie (Tunney) take over a small motel to help then get over their own loss. With Ray working on the renovations of the motel, they have a soft opening, which sees them attract their first guests.
When Ray discovers secret corridors with windows into each room, which he becomes interested in watching through, then the mysterious events start happening, starting with a pig dumped in the swimming pool.
Thoughts on Looking Glass
Characters – Ray has just purchased the motel to try and start over with his wife, he is a handy man by trade, using his time to fix up the motel. He learns about secret windows watching through them, he sees strange events happening and wants to get to the bottom of the events going on around his motel. Maggie is the wife of Ray, she is happy to move away from their past, but struggles to trust Ray after his own past. Howard is the local sheriff that keeps visiting searching for the former owner, he is overly friendly too often for the couple. Tommy is a regular that uses the motel for his liaisons while on the road.
Performances – Nicolas Cage is having one of his weaker performances here, he just doesn’t make his character feel like it is one of the own Cage like ones. Robin Tunney does a solid job in the supporting role, as does Marc Blucas and Ernie Lively.
Story – The story follows a couple that take over a motel only to start dealing with strange events surrounding something that happened before they got there. The story starts off feeling like a mystery about what once happened here which is interesting enough right, well it soon takes a turn down a path where seemingly nothing actually happens here, a woman goes missing, Ray becomes a peeping Tom and a nosey cop gets too involved with the motel, this story seems like a bad soap opera episode because it seems like we get a starting thread of a story only for it to go no where. We seem to just end the story without any real twists or investigations going on, it just felt like a bunch of random stuff happening.
Mystery – The mystery is presented, only we don’t spend any time watching what happens which only ends up leading us rather flat about what we have just watched.
Settings – The film is mostly set at the motel which shows how you will never know what could happen in a motel.
Scene of the Movie – The meeting in the desert.
That Moment That Annoyed Me – Did you do it, did I do what? This scene lasts an awkward two minutes, it felt like a lifetime.
Final Thoughts – This is a movie that ended up going in no particular direction and ends up feeling like just a bunch of stuff happens, instead of a storyline.
Overall: Messy, directionless and empty.
Rating