‘The Loft’ will keep you guessing

Sometimes you’re just in the mood for a cheesy, sleazy, vapid movie. Especially after the winter season was filled with highbrow artsy films desperate for Oscar recognition, it can feel really gratifying to turn your brain off and indulge in a guilty pleasure. If films like “The Theory of Everything” and “The Imitation Game” are like ginger crusted onaga from Alan Wong’s, then “The Loft” is like an order of two deep fried tacos from Jack in the Box. You know it’s bad for you, but man, does it satisfy that craving.

The premise of “The Loft” is very simple. Five married men share a loft to give them a secret location where they can cheat on their wives. But then they find a dead woman handcuffed to the bed and from there they need to figure out which of the five is responsible for her murder.

I wasn’t expecting much going into “The Loft” but it actually turned out to be a pretty fun film. I enjoy whodunit movies in general as I like to try to figure out who the bad guy is before the film reveals it, and because I have a pretty good track record of filtering through all the misleading information and correctly guessing the killer due to the sheer number of films I’ve seen in my lifetime. But “The Loft” kept me guessing and there was a point in the film where I literally said out loud, “I didn’t see that coming.”

The direction by Erik Van Looy is very slick and after looking him up on IMDB, I learned that “The Loft” is actually a remake of the Belgian film “Loft,” also directed by Van Looy. He does a great job in slowly revealing the facts of the woman’s death and the perspectives of all five of the men leading up to it and I actually felt that there were moments in the film that were very Brian De Palma-esque. And if your film reminds me of the work of the director of “Scarface” and “The Untouchables,” then that’s definitely a good thing.

There are some pacing issues in the film and the conclusion is a little overdone, but overall “The Loft” is an effective thriller that can fulfill your need for some mindless junk.