TRESPASS - Starring Nicholas Cage and Nicole Kidman Premieres Today On Demand → On Demand Weekly

TRESPASS - Starring Nicholas Cage and Nicole Kidman Premieres Today On DemandOctober 13, 2011

Millennium Entertainment

On Demand Weekly provides new movie reviews of hot movies on demand and from the POV of watching from the comfort of your home. Today’s review: TRESPASS (Millennium Entertainment).

Click Here For On Demand Weekly's Exclusive Interview With Director Joel Schumacher

TRESPASS - Starring Nicholas Cage and Nicole Kidman Premieres On Demand
By Chris Claro

This thing we call VOD is a strange beast. Populated mostly with smaller-budget independent films of a particular pedigree, video on demand has, in its relatively brief existence, encouraged the discovery of actors, writers, and directors who fly below the radar. It has offered a space to esoteric documentaries and earnest, star-free features shot in the hinterlands on a shoestring.

But every once in a while, it seems, a real live Hollywood-type movie premieres on VOD. Maybe a distribution deal falls through. Maybe there’s no marketing budget. Or maybe the director and his two Oscar-winning stars have holes in their schedules and villa payments to make.

Whatever the reason, TRESPASS, the new film directed by Joel Schumacher (THE LOST BOYS) and starring Nicolas Cage (LEAVING LAS VEGAS) and Nicole Kidman (THE HOURS) appears to be just such a movie. Released by Millennium, TRESPASS will have a day-and-date premiere “in theaters or order it with your remote,” as the breathless promos bark.

So now there are two venues in which to experience this turgid home-invasion thriller that starts at ridiculous, wends its way toward outlandish, and settles, in its third act, into total presposterousness. Cage plays Kyle Miller, a diamond broker whose go-go career has Kidman, the missus, feeling ignored. Aside from their issues, the couple has to contend with a typically self-obsessed and selfish teenage daughter. When a quartet of sadistic villains violates the Miller sleek sanctuary in pursuit of stones, cash, and maybe a kidney, the contrivances run amok, piling atop one another until they can’t do anything but topple over.

The bad guys, led by a genuinely scary Ben Mendelsohn (ANIMAL KINGDOM), have agendas, and the schematic script by Karl Gadjusek gives each member of the foursome his or her big scene to explain why they’re not really that bad, just misunderstood. Whether one is trying to recover his lost drug dough, regain custody of her daughter, or just express his psychopathic love for the ravishing Mrs. Miller, the crooks are each given paint-by-number colors that Gadjusek fills in dutifully.

Though the film has a low-rent premise more suited to late night fare starring C. Thomas Howell and Kristy Swanson, the sheen of TRESPASS is impressive. Neither Cage nor Kidman condescends to the material, offering performances that belie the simplistic cheesiness of the screenplay.

It’s interesting to see Cage, after so many mannered, over-the-top performances, pull back on the quirks to make Kyle a believable everyman. Kidman acquits herself as well, bringing her steely sexiness to the underwritten, cliché role of the neglected wife. As Mendelsohn’s crack-addled partner in life and work, Jordana Spiro (THE GOODS: LIVE HARD, SELL HARD) is notably hot-wired, and TWILIGHT action figure Cam Gigandet makes an impression as a lovesick psycho. (is there any other kind?)

Despite Schumacher’s economical direction and precise production design – always a hallmark of his work -- TRESPASS cannot overcome the hackiness of Gadjusek’s programmatic screenplay. As the power shifts and reversals get harder to swallow, the film nearly sinks into parody, and the grisly violence becomes more cartoonish. Along the way, Cage and Kidman manage to maintain their dignity, but can’t save TRESPASS from its own excesses.

It’s a shame that TRESPASS is such a dud, because Schumacher’s visual flair has always made his films, from FLATLINERS to FALLING DOWN to PHONE BOOTH, entertaining and vibrant. But his latest is let down by a weak script that spins out of control. Lock your doors and stay away from TRESPASS.

- Chris Claro

Chris
Chris Claro is a contributing writer to On Demand Weekly. He is a former Director of Promotion for Sundance Channel and now works as a writer, producer, and media educator. He is a regular contributor to dvdverdict.com and contributor to the Eyes and Ears section of huffingtonpost.com