The Loft - A hard film to like too much

I say that ‘The Loft’ is a hard film to like, but, in some ways, I did enjoy it.  It was a decent enough thriller with a fair few twists and turns in it.  However, what I felt let it down was the characters – nothing wrong with the acting; it was just that all the characters were just so fundamentally unlikeable. 

It’s about five well-to-do men, who chip in and buy themselves a swanky ‘loft’ apartment.  Nothing wrong with that, apart from the fact that the aim of this purchase is to have a pad that’s away from their wives when they want to bring other women back late at night.

However, their little ‘love nest’ takes on a more sinister ambience when a naked woman is found naked and handcuffed to the bed.  Now they must figure out which one of them did the deed and, if possible, how to cover it up.  Therefore, we – the audience – are expected to root for a bunch of adulterous men who are hoping to cover up the death of an innocent woman in order to keep their infidelities from their wives.

Then there’s the flashbacks.  Much of the story is told with the help of flashbacks, all of which designed to show the back story concerning the central characters and their possible motivations for doing – or not doing – the killer deed.  Personally, I’m never a fan of flashbacks (I gave up on watching ‘Lost’ because of them) and long for the story to move on, rather than tell us information we can pretty much work out for ourselves.  It just seems like too much padding.

However, for all its faults, I did sit through it and I’d probably watch it again.  As I briefly alluded to at the beginning of my review, there are some twists and turns that you probably won’t see coming.  I’d like to watch The Loft again and see if I can pick up on the clues a second time around.  It’s the type of film that’s definitely more worth watching on TV (i.e. when you don’t have to pay too much to watch it) if you’re in the mood for a twisty little thriller.  Just don’t expect to care much about anyone involved.  They should probably all be locked up really.

7/10 if I woke up on Groundhog Day and had to watch this again, I could live with that