Mirror, mirror on the wall...who is the sleaziest voyeur of them all? Yes, you guessed it. Nicolas Cage's character Ray; a haunted dark-haired handyman sporting a goatee with round glasses who tries to survive the doomed marriage to his wife Maggie. In his new film, "Looking Glass" (Momentum Pictures), Nicolas Cage stars as the new owner of the creepy, run-down Motor Way Motel out in the Arizona desert.
He and his wife Maggie bought the motel from Ben, the former owner, in hopes of beginning a new life together and escaping a horrifying tragic accident that took the life of their young daughter who fell off a balcony.
Unfortunately, the flashback of that scene in the film was not enough. The film stars Nicolas Cage and Robin Tunney who portrayed the character Sarah in the 1996 cult-classic, "The Craft." The film is directed by Tim Hunter and produced by Braxton Pope. It's currently available on VOD, iTunes and is running in limited release at select theaters.
'Looking Glass' is a deceiving murder mystery
When Ray opens up a door to the pool chamber with a chain and a padlock, he discovers a secret tunnel with a two-way mirror connected to 'Room 10' that the former owner Ben installed to watch the guests engage in sexual and erratic behavior. He shamelessly becomes a voyeur himself and witnesses a dominatrix hooker torturing her clients and a sex addict motel guest named Tommy getting it on with the hotel maid and various prostitutes.
Ray becomes transfixed by the blonde hooker and watches her in action. He is fed up and bored with his own life. Once his wife finds out about his strange and awkward behavior, she turns against him and trouble ensues.
The tag-line in the trailer, "Seeing is Deceiving" describes most of the film perfectly. It's a modern-day Hitchcock voyeuristic thriller.
As the story unfolds, Ray and Maggie are questioned regarding the murder of a blonde hotel guest named Chrissy. A sheriff frequently visits the motel and asks Ray if he's the one that killed Chrissy, when what he really did was burn the dead body of a pig that was thrown in the motel pool out in the desert.
Cage is more mellow in this movie and there's hardly any "Cage rage" in this film compared to "Mom and Dad," another Momentum Pictures film which was released in January and also premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival.
(TIFF 2017).
The Nicolas Cage VOD train keeps rolling
Nicolas Cage, the once A-list movie blockbuster star of "Face Off" and "National Treasure" has over 91 films and counting but the independent C- films keep heading under the radar and going straight to VOD or DVD like "Mom and Dad" which received rave reviews. Now, his latest release is questionable and not one of his best films.
He keeps cranking out below-average indie films because he has to pay his debts off. His other upcoming films are "Primal" and "The Humanity Bureau." The VR version is scheduled to drop on March 2 and the full film is being released on April 6. His four other films, 211," "Between Worlds," "A Score To Settle" and "Mandy" are supposedly his most bizarre movies yet. "Mandy" premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, UT in January. The other three are either in production or post-production.
Rating D-.
