As mentioned in my last post, the next few WATC(H) movies have not been the most engaging, but as they say in the circus, “The show must go on.” 

Of the four films I’ve watched recently, released circa 2011-12 (starting with Seeking Justice) Trespass was perhaps the best of the worst. There were enough opportunities for Nic to get a little Nicky on ‘em, and the plot twists, while overdone, kept my interest to the very end of the film. 

The World According to Trespass

Much like Seeking Justice, Trespass (2011) poses another big “what-if” question that keeps some Americans awake at night: “What would you do if your family was the target of a home invasion?” In this Joel Shumacher-directed film, starring Nicolas Cage and Nicole Kidman (as Kyle and Sarah Miller) we get to see how one particular family (with a lot of secrets) responds when their luxury home is invaded by a gang of not-the-savviest thieves and drug dealers.

Brief plot summary: Kyle is a smarmy diamond dealer, executive salesmen type, who feels he is “sacrificing” for his family so that they can have the very best of everything. Nice cars, jewelry, swimming pools, money-money, the works. His wife Sarah, an architect, seems materially provided for, but emotionally neglected. She is unhappy, unromanced and would rather have her husband home and available to his family, then out in the world earning riches through his self-imposed exile. Their daughter Avery (Liana Liberato) is the typical entitled upper class teen interested mostly in getting her way and going to other rich-kid parties for the sex, drugs, and rock n’ roll. 

Kyle’s home is protected with the 2011 height of home security: a 24-hour monitored security system, a plethora of cameras, a biometric safe, panic buttons, and a layout with maze-like spaciousness. But even those safeguards can’t stop a gang of thieves lead by Elias (Ben Mendelsohn) his brother Jonah (Cam Gigandet), cartel “heavy” Ty (Dash Mihok) and strung-out stripper Petal (Jordana Spiro) from breaking in to hold the family hostage in an effort to steal Kyle’s pile of cash and diamonds. 

As the story unfolds, and the thieves (on an urgently tight time frame) attempt to bully and terrorize Kyle into turning over all his riches, we are served a pretty heavy dose of screaming, arm-twisting, negotiation, and gun-pointing. The crux of the movie though is about trust and negotiation. Does Kyle trust that his family will be unharmed if he gives the thieves the code to his safe? Does Sarah trust Kyle to do what’s really best for the family? Do the two brothers (Jonah and Elias) trust that the other will stick to their end of the bargain? Does Jonah trust that the cartel won’t just kill him before he’s had a chance to make good on his debt? 

As the action intensifies and Kyle attempts to bargain for his family’s life, we learn that everyone in the room has been hiding something. Mixed into the violent interludes we are served fade-in / fade-out flashbacks that reveal that everything on the surface is not what it may seem for both the family relationships and the “unified” criminal partnership.

Here’s the list of secrets revealed this way [spoilers to follow]

Kyle: Kyle is a born negotiator, able to talk his way out of the proverbial paper bag, but suspiciously he refuses to open the safe that would free (or potentially doom his family). When he is eventually forced to open the safe, we discover that it is, in fact, empty. There are no diamonds and no cash hidden there. Kyle is “underwater” financially and his riches are a facade. But he has been squirreling away cash which he has hidden in the walls of his home in order to shelter it from potential seizure once he dies or goes bankrupt. 

Sarah: Sarah has met Jonah prior to this encounter as he was posing as a security employee working on their home. She ogled Jonah swimming in her pool and may or may not have kissed him willingly. Throughout the hostage negotiation she plays on Jonah’s sympathies in order to try to secure safety for her family. She promises him she’ll “do anything he asks.” The ghost of infidelity kind of hangs there in the midst of many of Sarah and Kyle’s traumatized interactions.

Jonah: Jonah, Elias younger bro, cased out the miller home, but fell in lust / love with Sarah in the process. He wants to keep the family (except Kyle) mostly unharmed and acts as the balance against violence that Elias and Ty wish to use as leverage on the family. But Jonah has some mental issues as well, which gets exploited by Sarah and Kyle as the plot progresses. Jonah may or may not have caused Elias to lose the cartel’s money which makes this robbery (in proximity to Sarah) a necessity. 

Elias: Lisping Elias tells a lot of lies and half truths throughout the hostage situation, such as one about his abused mother who needed an expensive kidney transplant that necessitates this robbery. Elias’ is trying to protect his girlfriend Petal and get out from under the scrutiny of the cartel being represented by Ty.  Elias may or may not have intended to kill the entire family going against what he has promised his brother Jonah. 

Petal: Petal is an open book. A strung-out hooker who wants nicer things, feels insecure about her position and wants to run away to Mexico so that the cartel doesn’t do something to her in punishment of Elias. Kind of a non-factor as she basically gets outsmarted and killed (?) by Avery in an “oops-no-seatbelt” car crash.

Avery: Often underestimated, Avery the teenager does more to escape, evade harm, and negotiate solutions than perhaps her entire family does over the course of the movie. She has no agenda and really only one secret. She snuck out to a rich kid party where a creepy bro tried to give her coke and sleep with her. 

Darling Nicky

In this intense thriller we get to see multiple sides of Nicolas Cage and we get a range of his acting prowess (as always). Here’s a few of the highlights.

• Smooth talking. At certain points Kyle seems able to twist any deal in his direction. He talks fast and with a high degree of affectation. Sometimes there are hints of the nasal fry he’s been working on since Peggy Sue Got Married, but for the most part he is just your typical smarmy salesman. He convinces the thieves they can’t steal diamonds because they have no one to “cut them” and that each one has a distinct shape and identifier that would lead them back to Kyle’s murder.
• Nerd-style. He’s buttoned up in this one, with gold-rimmed glasses, white starched color, fancy watch, and tie. We haven’t seen him in a role like this one, I don’t believe. His eyesight is bad. He’s got the slightly pudgy dad bod going on. He’s a little bit awkward but stays clever enough to always be thinking and strategizing three steps ahead.
• Human punching bag. Kyle gets the shit beat out of him in this one. His hand gets broken early on. He gets shot, burns himself with a lighter (to free his hands from duct tape), and nearly goes up in flames with his home. At a certain point in the movie, Kyle confesses to Elias, “I’m worth more dead than alive.” And after that punishment he may have wished for death. 
• Sweary in all the right ways. Reaching his limit at multiple points during his hostage capture and torture, Kyle doesn’t disappoint in angry outbursts with creative cussing. A few examples: “If it’s the kidney you want, then take mine, ASS FUCK!” Or, “Yeah, do it, shit hole!” 

Firsts for Nicolas Cage as Kyle Miller

• Businessman (who is also not doing well financially)
• Suspicious his wife is having an affair because of a gold lighter
• Making a reference to “French hooligans” during a nervous tirade
• Bargaining for his life by proposing insurance fraud
• Incapacitated like Velma from Scooby Doo when he loses his glasses
• Has his hand broken
• Referencing that he is a “cuckold”
• Shooting a guy with a nail gun
• Nail-gunning a guy in place so he will be burned up in a fire.
• Driving a Porsche

Recurrences

• Making questionable deals his wife / family is unaware of (Lord of War, Honeymoon in Vegas)
• In a movie with Ben Mendelsohn (Knowing)
• Playing a con man (of sorts) (Matchstick Men)
• Trying to “dad” but in awkwards and inefficient ways (Matchstick Men, The Weather Man, The Family Man)

Quotables

“I have to go with your mother on this.”

“Are you cartooning me?” This is a 2A diamond so clear you will weep. Just weep.”

“I’m inviting you to steal from me.”

“We lose leverage, we die.”

“You sick fucking animals.”

“I have no money. I put it all in my house–in my family.”

“Well how am I supposed to read it without my glasses, ASSHOLE!”

“Hey, I’ve got something for you, fucker!” 

“Leave. My family. Alone.”

Conclusion

If you happen to be on a long flight somewhere or staying up all night prepping for a colonoscopy, you may want to watch a home invasion movie from the mid aughts. If this is the case, I can heartily recommend Trespass. It’s not going to be the best of the genre, but it has Nicolas Cage in it. If you’ve read this post already with all the spoilers, well, you can probably just pass on this one (and to be honest the next few movies on the WATC(H).  As a Nicolas Cage fan, It pains me to admit this to you, but it’s the truth. I have confidence this is just a rough patch and we’ve got some highly entertaining Cage films on the horizon. 

Fingers crossed.