Review: Trespass

One of these rare obscurities comes during Nicolas Cage’s character’s gradual breakdown and offers up his kidney to the burglars. Cage overacts so much, that every line he speaks with this bizarre nasal accent, feels like a gag. There is a certain ‘so bad it’s good’ pleasure in Cage’s performance, but it never reaches the peak Cage-madness a la Wicker Man style. Nicole Kidman, an actress who normally dominates the screen, simply fades into the background here – the character has no depth and wastes the skill of Kidman.

Perhaps more painful than the waste of these two good stars is seeing Schumacher’s name on the credits. This is a man who has created some modern classics and I’ll happily admit to liking most of his later work, mainly Blood Creek and Twelve. But this is a generic, DTV thriller, lacking any real stylistic touches from the great director.

On the positive side, there is something quite magnetic about the production design. The setting of this modern home is so garish with its copious amounts of technology and bright neon colours – that its rather hard to look away. It even gives the film a rather unbalanced atmosphere, especially when combined with a chaotic narrative that involves drug addicts, diamonds, chairs being thrown through glass walls and equally  mental burglars/home-owners.

Trespass is a bizarre mess of a film. It leans more towards cinematic spew but it does have occasional moments of trash gold, mainly through its cheap and shiny design and a deranged lead performance from Nicolas Cage. This is one to rent, chances are you’re not going to want to see it again (unless making a twisted Nicolas Cage montage for Youtube).