The Loft | Film review - Cunning locked-room mystery thriller keeps us guessing to the end

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The Loft James Marsden Karl Urban Matthias Schoenaerts Eric Stonestreet Wentworth Miller.jpg
(Image credit: © Signature Entertainment)

A dead blonde turns up in the penthouse apartment shared by five married men for their illicit liaisons. Only they have keys to the pad. So which one of them is responsible for her demise?

Cunning locked-room mystery thriller The Loft – a US remake by Belgian director Erik Van Looy of his 2008 film – keeps us guessing with an intricate flashback structure that shifts suspicion between womanising Karl Urban, sensitive James Marsden, uptight Wentworth Miller, tubby Eric Stonestreet and loose cannon Matthias Schoenaerts (who also starred in the Belgian original).

The plotting gets too clever by half towards the end, but with striking support from Rachael Taylor and Isabel Lucas this remains a slick and stylish whodunit.

 Certificate 15. Runtime 98 mins. Director Erik Van Looy

The Loft is showing on Sky Movies Premiere at 1.05am tonight and is available on DVD from Signature Entertainment.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1bJZYqGfYGE

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Jason Best
Jason Best

A film critic for over 25 years, Jason admits the job can occasionally be glamorous – sitting on a film festival jury in Portugal; hanging out with Baz Luhrmann at the Chateau Marmont; chatting with Sigourney Weaver about The Archers – but he mostly spends his time in darkened rooms watching films. He’s also written theatre and opera reviews, two guide books on Rome, and competed in a race for Yachting World, whose great wheeze it was to send a seasick film critic to write about his time on the ocean waves. But Jason is happiest on dry land with a classic screwball comedy or Hitchcock thriller.