About.com Rating

Unlike most of the glut of Hollywood genre remakes over the past decade or so, you probably won't hear too many people complaining about the lack of originality of the thriller The Loft -- because so few people (at least, outside of Belgium) know of the 2008 Belgian original. Unfortunately for viewers, though, there are plenty of other reasons for people to complain about the film.

The Plot

At the opening gala for a highrise he designed, philandering architect Vincent (Karl Urban) pulls aside four of his longtime friends and makes them an offer: for a small monthly fee, they can share a luxury loft for their own extramarital affairs, avoiding the risk and cost of hotels.

The others go along with the plan (some more hesitant than others), and all seems great until Vincent shows up one morning to find the body of a woman stabbed to death and handcuffed to the bed. The five men gather and try to decide who the culprit is and what they can do to solve the mystery without revealing their secret.

The End Result

Despite a strong, recognizable cast, The Loft comes off a sterile, second-rate thriller more suited for the direct-to-video route. I haven't seen the original, so I can't say where the remake when wrong, but presumably the plot didn't change very much, and it's that story that's the crux of the problem. While a murder mystery set within a confined space has a classic Agatha Christie vibe, the potential slowly dissolves into a mix of bland police procedural, tepid sexual thriller and illogical whodunit. The twists are forced, relying on unnatural reactions that make things more convoluted than they need to be.

It certainly doesn't help that the characters are unlikable shells of human beings, walking sex bags who treat marriage like Kleenex.

Beer commercial cinema at its most shallow, the women are either sex objects or cackling shrews who spend half of the film eyeing their spouses suspiciously. There's so little effort to even try to explain why the men's marriages aren't made in heaven, it feels like there had to be something left on the cutting room floor.

Perhaps just as egregious is the fact that the suspense elements fall flat. It's a thrill-less thriller that doesn't climax so much as vomit up a series of events and then mush them together in some semblance of a conclusion. It's a slick-looking film, and the guessing game of who the killer is maintains a level of curiosity, but in the end, it loses its uphill battle to appear clever, each revelation revealing how dumb, ill-conceived and morally corrupt a story it is.

The Skinny

• Acting: C (Good cast, although some of the supporting members are stiff.)
• Direction: C (Slick but cold.)
• Script: D- (Annoying characters, unlikely mystery, no thrills.)
• Gore/Effects: C (One modest stabbing.)
• Overall: C- (The thrill is gone from this wannabe twisty thriller.)

The Loft is directed by the Erik Van Looy and is rated R by the MPAA for sexual content, nudity, bloody violence, language and some drug use. Release date: January 30, 2015.