LOOKING GLASS (2018)

Studio:       Momentum Pictures
Director:    Tim Hunter
Writer:       Jerry Rapp
Producer:  Braxton Pope, David Wulf
Stars:     Nicolas Cage, Robin Tunney, Marc Blucas, Ernie Lively, Kassia Conway, Jacque Gray, Bill Bolender, Jason Wixom, Barry Minoff

Review Score:

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Summary:

New motel owners become embroiled in a murder mystery linked to a one-way mirror that allows voyeurs to spy on one of the rooms.

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Synopsis:     Show/Hide Spoilers

Looking for a new start after the tragic death of their six-year-old daughter, Ray and Maggie assume ownership of the roadside Motor Way Motel. Ray is perplexed when previous owner Ben Harling isn’t there to greet them. Ray later receives a brief phone call from Ben before Ben cuts his welcome short and disconnects his number.

Ray and Maggie meet the motel’s housekeeper Ava. Ray begins making repairs around the property. Maggie checks in Jessica Phillips as their first guest.

Truck driver and motel regular Tommy arrives and introduces himself to Ray. Tommy requests #10 as his usual room. Ray sees Tommy go into the room with a prostitute. Ray also notices someone leaving Jessica’s room in a red Mustang.

Ray discovers a concealed crawlspace in the pump room basement. At the end of the tunnel, Ray finds a one-way mirror that allows someone to secretly look into room #10.

Tommy returns for another night. While Maggie sleeps, Ray uses the mirror to briefly spy on Tommy and another prostitute. The red Mustang also returns.

Ray wakes from an odd sex dream involving Ava. Maggie moves Jessica into room #10. Ray and Maggie have a frustrated fight when Ray finds out that Maggie was researching adoption. Ray meets the shifty gas station owner across the street, who cryptically infers that his “boys” can take care of any trouble in the small town.

Tommy returns. Upset that his regular room is taken, Tommy admits to Ray that he is married, but is also a sex addict.

Ray spies on Jessica and a blonde dominatrix named Cassie as they engage in bondage sex in room #10. Ray returns to Maggie and they have sex. Meanwhile, a masked man chokes Jessica to death in her room.

Sheriff Howard Keller introduces himself to Ray in the morning.

Ray and Maggie take a night off by going to a casino. When they return to the motel, they find a bloody pig in the pool. Inside the pig is a graduation photo of a girl named Crissy. Ray takes the pig to the desert and burns it.

Tommy returns to the motel. When Ray mentions the pig, Tommy tells Ray about a girl who killed herself in the pool.

Howard returns the next morning. Howard tells Ray that rangers found the pig and the gas station crew told Howard what happened. Ray asks about the girl who committed suicide. Howard says he thinks Crissy was actually murdered. Howard adds that she died the day after Ray came to see the motel for the first time. Howard frustrates Ray by asking if he was involved in Crissy’s death.

Cassie comes to the motel and requests room #10. Maggie sees Ray staring at Cassie’s window from outside.

Ava’s screams wake Ray and Maggie the following morning. Ava turns out to have been frightened by a small snake in a bathtub.

Ray and Maggie hear on the news that their first guest Jessica was found dead. Howard comes by while Ray is away to question Maggie about her husband.

Cassie comes back to stay in room #10. Maggie checks her in. Cassie says something cryptic to Maggie regarding Ray.

Ray sees another woman, Becky, enter room #10. Ray uses the mirror to spy on a bondage session between Cassie and Becky. Ray notices that an unseen man is in the room watching them.

A vandal throws red paint on the motel office’s windows. Ray angrily confronts the gas station owner about staying out of his business, which angers the other man.

Ray follows the red Mustang to a bar. Finding Cassie sitting at a table, Ray confronts her with accusatory questions about Jessica. A large man with a crew cut gets physical with Ray, prompting Ray to pull his gun. Ray beats down the other man before warning Cassie to stay away from his motel.

Ray returns to the motel. Accusing her husband of having an affair because he repeatedly disappears, Maggie initiates a fight that turns physical. The couple argues about Maggie’s drug use and Ray’s infidelity, which may have contributed to the death of their daughter. Ray and Maggie end up having sex.

In the morning, Maggie packs her things to leave. Ray convinces her to stay by showing her the mirror and revealing what he saw.

Howard comes by to ask if Ray has discovered any way to contact Ben, as Howard wants to question him regarding Crissy’s death. Howard also infers that Ray and Maggie were negligent in the death of their daughter. Ray tells Howard about Cassie by claiming she is involved in suspicious activity.

Ray finally tracks down Ben and arranges a clandestine meeting in the desert. Ray demands to know the truth about the mirror as well as Crissy’s death. Ben warns that Ray and Maggie should leave the motel. A sniper suddenly shoots Ben dead.

Ray races home to find the motel ransacked and Maggie missing. Seeing lights in room #10, Ray goes into the tunnel to spy through the mirror. Ray sees Maggie bound and gagged on the bed. The mystery man is revealed to be Howard.

Ray breaks through the mirror to tackle Howard. The two men fight until Ray shoots Howard dead.

Tommy arrives looking to book his usual room. Ray and Maggie merely walk past him to their car and drive away.

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Review:

What’s the best way to repair a broken marriage after the tragic death of a six-year-old daughter?  Allow your husband to blind buy a motel off of Craigslist apparently.  Save your skeptical guffaws.  Running a roadside inn on a whim doesn’t even make the top ten list of muddled motivations moving characters throughout “Looking Glass.”

Ray (Nicolas Cage) and Maggie (Robin Tunney) should have sensed something wasn’t on the up and up when previous proprietor Ben wasn’t there to welcome them.  Concern should have rung a louder alarm when Ben subsequently cut short a phone call before disconnecting his number, leaving the couple with no way to contact him again.

Ray and Maggie don’t have time to worry about zoning inspections, deed transfers, or other legal requirements making this part of the premise implausible.  Instead, the two inexperienced motel operators sally forth with their plan to learn the hospitality trade on the fly.

In the pump room basement, Ray discovers a concealed crawlspace leading to a one-way mirror that peeks into Room #10.  My first instinct would be to say, “hey honey, you won’t believe what I just found.”  Ray doesn’t tell his wife anything, preferring to keep that card in his back pocket in case it comes in handy down the road, which of course it does.

As already implied, these aren’t folks who make logical choices.  When Ray and Maggie later find a gutted pig dumped in their pool by vandals, neither one of them thinks to call the police.  I would have at least tossed the carcass in the convenient dumpster a few yards away.  Ray drives several hours to burn it in a desert ditch for some head-scratching reason.

Ray ends up using the mirror to relieve sexual frustration by spying on a regular’s revolving door of prostitutes as well as a blonde dominatrix whose same sex kinks really catch Ray’s voyeuristic eye.  After one of her bondage beauties ends up dead however, Ray goes from Peeping Tom to possible suspect in a murder mystery connected to the motel’s secret past.

People populate “Looking Glass.”  Minor events take place.  But well over half of the runtime hits the rearview before any sense of an actual story starts taking shape.

Cleaning lady Ava has a nonspeaking nephew.  Truck driver Tommy beds a new woman whenever he stays in his usual room.  The unnamed gas station owner across the street leads a cryptic crew of townies seemingly up to something suspicious.

I mention these men and women because although all of them feature in multiple minutes, exactly none of them feature in the film’s final plotline.  Eight of the 15 characters identified by end credits are listed simply as ‘Gas Station Mechanic,’ ‘Bartender,’ ‘Crewcut,’ or else add a descriptor like ‘Becky the Bondage Novice’ to remind you who anyone even was.  This sign burns brighter than the motel’s neon that the movie knows how negligibly unimportant the majority of its roles are.

Ray and Maggie have a next-to-nothing relationship whose background is built on just two scenes of frustrated fights.  Maggie is less an active participant and more of a lump Ray has to notice once in a while before going about his business solo.  Sidebars involving a garden snake in a bathtub, a casino dancing montage, and numerous coffee conversations with the local sheriff pile on more dead weight.

Some 70s-style title cards pique initial expectations that “Looking Glass” might fertilize its Hitchcockian seed with exploitation era inspiration.  Alas, scripting settles for a less cinematic, more rote route.  Of course the only cute moment between the couple comes from an impromptu pillow fight.  And of course Maggie happens to be watching the news when a woman they know is reported dead.  The film doesn’t even wait until opening credits conclude to introduce the Chekhov’s gun in Ray’s glove compartment.  It isn’t just the disappointing destination that makes the mystery unrewarding.  Every pointless stop along the way adds to unfulfilling fiction.

Even Nicolas Cage doesn’t deem the material worthwhile enough to try salvaging it with his campy B-movie theatrics.  Muting himself with mumbles and limiting action to quizzical expressions while smoking cigarettes, Cage’s yawningly reserved performance contentedly lets the chips float flatly into their predictable places.

Supporting players Marc Blucas, Ernie Lively, and Bill Bolender do more to shake up stagnant scenery with their kooky characterizations, though they don’t possess the collective power to reverse the film’s downward pull.  Competent cinematography, standard direction, and believable set decoration complete the outward appearance of a professional production.  But this is purely a filler film to make mortgage payments while everyone involved waits between better movies.

Review Score:  40

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