MOVIE: Looking Glass

STARRING: Nicolas Cage, Robin Tunney, Marc Blucas, Ernie Lively, Jacque Gray, Kassia Conway, Bill Bolender, Bary Jay Minoff

RELEASE DATE: February 16th, 2018

WHERE TO WATCH: VOD (Vudu, Amazon Prime, Apple TV)

By Justin Pomerville (2 Broke Geeks)

Motels always have a spooky/creepy vibe. They have been used as a location for many horror/thriller films. So, in 2018, Looking Glass decided to build on those thoughts. Did it succeed in being a good thriller film? Not even close.

The plot is Ray (played by Cage) and his wife Maggie (played by Robin Tunney) purchase a motel from the shady previous owner, Ben (played by Bill Bolender). Thinking the motel would help their own relationship, Ray finds out that he may have bitten off more than he can chew when the regular residents start showing up. Then, he finds a hidden room with a two-way mirror that looks into one specific room where he finds people doing sexual acts. When a random murder happens, an officer comes sniffing around. It’s up to Ray to put the pieces together.

This movie is forgettable at best. It’s better than some of the other Cage films, but there are weird transitions in tone and character development. There is a fleeting moment of Ray and Maggie talking about their dead child and who was to blame. The actual two-way mirror that this movie seems built around is just an afterthought the majority of the time. There are also a total of 13 cast members, and only three are important to the story. Everyone else is just there and doesn’t further the plot at all. This is typical for some, but every other character that had lines felt underutilized. They might have been put in as figurative red herrings, but they had multiple scenes with no progress or payoff to make a character guilty or not.

There, that’s it. This film will be in the bottom end of “Terrible” on the Nic Gauge.