Oh, Joel Schumacher, with your patchiest of patchy careers ever (though some Playlisters will outright call it an awful one). There is some interesting work in your flawed ouevre oeuvre, including “Tigerland,” and “Falling Down,” but so-so efforts (“Veronica Guerin“) are usually overcome by the ungood (“Phone Booth,” “The Number 23,” “Twelve“). Pitched somewhere between a B-movie director with good intentions and poor execution and a thoughtless Hollywood A-list director without much vision whose best days are far behind him (think of the days when his career was big enough to score him two “Batman” films, even if he did kill the franchise until Nolan came around), Schumacher’s career is a bit of a head-scratcher. Regardless, he’s back this year with “Tresspass,” what appears to be a B-movie thriller starring Nicolas Cage and Nicole Kidman — two of the biggest stars he’s worked with in some time — and it’s playing at the Toronto International Film Festival this year.
What doesn’t bode well for its quality though is the fact that the picture will open in theaters and premiere on VOD on the same day: October 14, 2011. From these new photos (released on the TIFF site and the film’s Facebook page), it appears as if the filmmaker is pulling out a page from the Micheal Haneke playbook, as his film is about a couple held for ransom in a home invasion.
Here’s the synopsis:
In a private, wealthy community, priority is placed on security and no exception is made for the Miller family’s estate. Behind their pristine walls and manicured gardens, Kyle (Nicolas Cage), a fast-talking businessman, has entrusted the mansion’s renovation to his stunning wife, Sarah (Nicole Kidman).
But between making those big decisions and keeping tabs on their defiant teenage daughter (Liana Liberato), Sarah often finds herself distracted by a young, handsome worker (Cam Gigandet) at their home. Nothing is what it seems, and it will take a group of cold-blooded criminals led by Elias (Ben Mendelsohn), who have been planning a vicious home invasion for months, to bring the Miller family together. When they storm the manor, everyone is tangled up in betrayal, deception, temptation and scheming. Kyle, Sarah and Avery will take the ultimate risk to make it out with their lives – and their family – intact.
On top of Cage and Kidman, “Tresspass” stars Ben Mendelsohn (“Animal Kingdom” breakout star), Cam Gigandet, Liana Liberato, Jordana Spiro, Dash Mihok, Emily Meade and Nico Tortorella. The film was written by Karl Gajdusek, and it was made by Millenium Entertainment, the same company that produced, “The Bad Lieutenant: Port Of Call New Orleans.”
