I watched Trespass almost out of morbid curiosity. This film sets the record for fastest theatre to video transition (18 days), it has a well known director, two very well known stars, a decent premise...what happened to this movie that caused it to only make twenty four thousand dollars on a thirty five million dollar budget? I had never seen even one trailer or advertisement for it but it does rent well at the local video store. The film isn't perfect by any means...there is a lot of over-acting, a lot of under-acting, an over simplified premise, a forced twist and mystery but it also has a decent thrill factor, good stars, and a short run time so it doesn't drag and the pace moves along well.
Nicholas Cage and Nicole Kidman look like they are being forced into this film so they're not giving the best performances of their career. Cage is known for being in some pretty bad flicks but he could have done a lot more with this character. Its also not his typical character as this one has a little more weakness left to expose but I liked that about it. Kidman's main job is to look doe eyed and scream a lot and get thrown around so she pulls that off alright without ever adding anything else to the mix. Liana Liberato might be the saving grace on this cast as she does a really solid job as the young daughter in the film. She's believable and does over and under do it at any time. She almost carries the weight of the rest of the cast. Cam Gigandet also does a decent job as the psychotic and hopelessly in love home invader. Gigandet has shown up in a lot of projects lately but he usually does a good job and he is also one of the better performers in the movie. Ben Mendelsohn, and Dash Mihok round out the cast and do okay as the leaders of the thieves. Both of them do some over-acting several times and it becomes almost humorous. All of them do a better job than Jordana Spiro who is a waste of space in the film and pointless to the entire story other than to have a cracked out female thief on board.
Some might say director Joel Schumacher has had his time in the sun and now into his seventies its time to retire...well this film doesn't help his cause because it feels really slapped together like no time was spent on considering character development or story. And the thing is...the concept and the ideas are all very good but the way that it is laid out and delivered is just not good. The film was mildly entertaining but it could have been so much better had there been better direction and performances by the two key stars who are both worthy and well acclaimed actors. I still would like to know the story behind this film because I feel like it was a favour to someone or some sort of unfulfilled contract on their part so they just did it because they had to. If this were a Sunday Night NBC movie...it would be worthy...but for what it is...skip it unless you're realllly bored or an enormous Nicholas Cage/Nicole Kidman fan. 6.5/10
Nicholas Cage and Nicole Kidman look like they are being forced into this film so they're not giving the best performances of their career. Cage is known for being in some pretty bad flicks but he could have done a lot more with this character. Its also not his typical character as this one has a little more weakness left to expose but I liked that about it. Kidman's main job is to look doe eyed and scream a lot and get thrown around so she pulls that off alright without ever adding anything else to the mix. Liana Liberato might be the saving grace on this cast as she does a really solid job as the young daughter in the film. She's believable and does over and under do it at any time. She almost carries the weight of the rest of the cast. Cam Gigandet also does a decent job as the psychotic and hopelessly in love home invader. Gigandet has shown up in a lot of projects lately but he usually does a good job and he is also one of the better performers in the movie. Ben Mendelsohn, and Dash Mihok round out the cast and do okay as the leaders of the thieves. Both of them do some over-acting several times and it becomes almost humorous. All of them do a better job than Jordana Spiro who is a waste of space in the film and pointless to the entire story other than to have a cracked out female thief on board.
Some might say director Joel Schumacher has had his time in the sun and now into his seventies its time to retire...well this film doesn't help his cause because it feels really slapped together like no time was spent on considering character development or story. And the thing is...the concept and the ideas are all very good but the way that it is laid out and delivered is just not good. The film was mildly entertaining but it could have been so much better had there been better direction and performances by the two key stars who are both worthy and well acclaimed actors. I still would like to know the story behind this film because I feel like it was a favour to someone or some sort of unfulfilled contract on their part so they just did it because they had to. If this were a Sunday Night NBC movie...it would be worthy...but for what it is...skip it unless you're realllly bored or an enormous Nicholas Cage/Nicole Kidman fan. 6.5/10