Movie review: ‘Trespass’
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Popcorn journeyman Joel Schumacher’s home-invasion flick “Trespass” does an efficient enough job setting up screenwriter Karl Gajdusek’s scenario: Four masked robbers barge into the sumptuous, secluded home of high-end diamond dealer Kyle Miller (Nicolas Cage), his architect-wife, Sarah (Nicole Kidman), and their teenage daughter (Liana Liberato), and immediately a war of bluffs begins over which party is more desperate.
Then the film takes a hyper-drive pill — side effects include excessive yelling, strained twists and ludicrous action logic — and a potentially claustrophobic B-movie nail-biter suddenly becomes tediously overworked.
Cage and Kidman bring a fair amount of professionally distressed acting chops to the proceedings, and Cage, of course, has a special gift for grinding already ridiculous dialogue into a delicious mince of loopy line readings. They’re aided by nervy “Animal Kingdom” star Ben Mendelsohn, a real scene-stealer as the alternatively menacing and bewildered lead thug.
But the movie’s not helped by a psychological side story involving Cam Gigandet’s hunky henchman that the actor is woefully ill-prepared to sell.
In the end, “Trespass” steps all over its own genre strengths.
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