''Looking Glass'' is a 2018 American
thriller film
Thriller film, also known as suspense film or suspense thriller, is a broad film genre that evokes excitement and suspense in the audience. The suspense element found in most films' plots is particularly exploited by the filmmaker in this genre ...
directed by
Tim Hunter and starring
Nicolas Cage
Nicolas Kim Coppola (born January 7, 1964), known professionally as Nicolas Cage, is an American actor and film producer. Born into the Coppola family, he is the recipient of various accolades, including an Academy Award, a Screen Actors Gu ...
. It was released in the United States by
Momentum Pictures
Momentum Pictures is a film distributor and a subsidiary of Entertainment One, itself part of Hasbro. Prior to 2013, it was a brand of Canadian distributor Alliance Films used for its releases in the United Kingdom, and was one of the leading i ...
on February 16, 2018.
Plot
Ray and Maggie have lost their child to an accident. Longing for a fresh start, they purchase a
motel
A motel, also known as a motor hotel, motor inn or motor lodge, is a hotel designed for motorists, usually having each room entered directly from the parking area for motor vehicles rather than through a central lobby. Entering dictionaries ...
from Ben in a small town located somewhere in the
California
California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...
desert on the way to
Las Vegas
Las Vegas (; Spanish for "The Meadows"), often known simply as Vegas, is the 25th-most populous city in the United States, the most populous city in the state of Nevada, and the county seat of Clark County. The city anchors the Las Vegas ...
.
Hours after their arrival, Ben calls Ray briefly, and disconnects his cellphone number soon after. Due to Ben’s weird behavior, Ray becomes suspicious and soon discovers a secret underground hallway, leading to a tiny room with a
one-way mirror
A one-way mirror, also called two-way mirror (or one-way glass, half-silvered mirror, and semi-transparent mirror), is a reciprocal mirror that appears reflective on one side and transparent at the other. The perception of one-way transmission i ...
that allows to secretly observe motel room No. 10.
A young woman named Jessica soon moves into the motel. Ray and Maggie also make acquaintance with Tommy, a likable
truck driver
A truck driver (commonly referred to as a trucker, teamster, or driver in the United States and Canada; a truckie in Australia and New Zealand; a HGV driver in the United Kingdom, Ireland and the European Union, a lorry driver, or driver in ...
who regularly frequents motel room No. 10 in company of a
prostitute
Prostitution is the business or practice of engaging in sexual activity in exchange for payment. The definition of "sexual activity" varies, and is often defined as an activity requiring physical contact (e.g., sexual intercourse, non-penet ...
, and Howard, a local deputy sheriff who comes by the motel every few days to have coffee.
Ray feels more and more uncomfortable due to Howard’s and the gas station staffs’ odd behavior. He notices that Howard keeps asking if he knew Ben’s whereabouts and that Jessica has nightly visits from another blonde woman (Strawberry Blonde). As Maggie moves Jessica to room No. 10, Ray spies on her and Strawberry Blonde through the one-way mirror and sees them have
BDSM
BDSM is a variety of often erotic practices or roleplaying involving bondage, discipline, dominance and submission, sadomasochism, and other related interpersonal dynamics. Given the wide range of practices, some of which may be engaged ...
sex. Later that night, after Strawberry Blonde and Ray have left, Jessica is strangled to death by a masked assailant.
One night, Ray and Maggie go to a casino. As they come back, they find the slashed corpse of a pig in the motel’s swimming pool with a note stuffed into the stomach reading “Crissy”. Ray drives to the desert and burns the corpse. As he comes back, he meets Tommy and tells him about the pig. Tommy says a young local woman named Crissy had committed suicide in the pool by cutting her stomach open.
The next morning, Howard comes over. He appears to be suspicious of Ray for not calling the police about the pig corpse. He starts to interrogate him and reveals to him that Crissy was actually murdered on the night after Ray and Maggie had first visited the motel prior to them buying it and that her murderer has not yet been caught. He also reveals that he spoke to the gas station staff who have had an eye on Ray ever since that visit. After Howard repeatedly asks Ray if he murdered Crissy and Ray repeatedly nervously denies, Howard starts to laugh and appears to believe him. Ray and Maggie later see a news report about Jessica, who has been found murdered in the desert.
Soon, Strawberry Blonde moves back into the motel and insists on getting room No. 10. Ray propositions her, but she ignores it. Later that night, Ray watches her and another woman have
BDSM
BDSM is a variety of often erotic practices or roleplaying involving bondage, discipline, dominance and submission, sadomasochism, and other related interpersonal dynamics. Given the wide range of practices, some of which may be engaged ...
sex, but also notices a man sitting around the corner in the bathroom.
Later Ray hears a noise and sees a man running away from the motel after having splashed red paint on the motel. Angrily Ray goes across the street and accuses the gas station manager of being involved, but the manager denies involvement.
When Strawberry Blonde leaves, he follows her car to a bar and interrogates her about Jessica’s death since she had been with her the night she died, but Strawberry Blonde does not answer his questions and a man attacks Ray, but Ray pulls a revolver and knocks him unconscious. He tells Strawberry Blonde to stay away from his motel.
When Ray returns to the motel, Maggie is furious and reveals that Howard had interrogated her about him. Strawberry Blonde had also advised her to keep an eye on Ray. They have a fight, but Ray manages to calm Maggie down. He shows the one-way mirror to Maggie and admits to having watched other people have sex.
Ray is convinced something happened in motel room 10. He decides the only way to find out is to speak to Ben. After calling many people and asking them to leave Ben a message, Ben finally calls and agrees to meet Ray in the desert. As they meet, Ben seems to be confused and suffering from paranoia. Ray tells Ben he knows about the one-way mirror and calls him a pervert, but Ben claims that he was only studying human sociology. Ben offers to return fifty percent of the purchase price to Ray and advises him to leave town immediately. Suddenly, a bullet strikes Ben in his chest and kills him. Ray sees a car speeding off in the distance.
Realizing he is in danger, Ray calls Maggie and asks her to pack up her things. Upon arriving at the motel, Ray notices Howard’s police car in the parking lot and finds signs of a struggle in his apartment. Looking through the one-way mirror, he sees Maggie gagged and restrained to the bed with Howard laying in wait for him. Howard tells Maggie he plans to kill her and Ray, making it look like Ray killed her and then committed suicide. Ray lures Howard to the mirror, then breaks through it and attacks him. Howard says he now understands how Ben knew what he did, revealing why he was so anxious to find him. They have a scuffle, but Ray manages to get hold of a pistol and kills Howard. He frees Maggie and they speed off by car.
Cast
*
Nicolas Cage
Nicolas Kim Coppola (born January 7, 1964), known professionally as Nicolas Cage, is an American actor and film producer. Born into the Coppola family, he is the recipient of various accolades, including an Academy Award, a Screen Actors Gu ...
as Ray
*
Robin Tunney
Robin Tunney (born June 19, 1972) is an American actress. Tunney made her film debut in the comedy ''Encino Man'' (1992) and rose to prominence with leading roles in the cult films ''Empire Records'' (1995) and '' The Craft'' (1996). Her perform ...
as Maggie
*
Marc Blucas
Marcus Paul Blucas (born January 11, 1972) is an American actor. Prior to his acting career, he played college basketball with the Wake Forest Demon Deacons. He had his first starring role as soldier and love interest Riley Finn on the WB super ...
as Howard
*
Ernie Lively
Ernie Lively (born Ernest Wilson Brown Jr.; January 29, 1947 – June 3, 2021) was an American actor and acting coach, and the father of actors Lori Lively, Jason Lively, Robyn Lively, Eric Lively, and Blake Lively.
Life and career
Lively was b ...
as Tommy
* Jacque Gray as Jessica "Room 6"
* Kassia Conway as Strawberry Blonde
*
Bill Bolender
Bill Bolender is an American character actor and artist, mainly known for small appearances in ''RoboCop 2'', '' JFK'', ''Reality Bites'', ''The Shawshank Redemption'', ''Nixon'' and ''Dante's Peak''.
His guest starring appearances include roles ...
as Ben
* Kimmy Jimenez as Becky
* Barry Jay Minoff as Gas Station Owner
* Jason K. Wixom as Gas Station Mechanic
* Pascoalina Dunham as Ava
* Sila Agavale as Detective
* Rebecca Beckham as Tommy's Girl #5
Reception
Critical response
On
review aggregator
A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews of products and services (such as films, books, video games, software, hardware, and cars). This system stores the reviews and uses them for purposes such as supporting a website where users ...
website
Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...
, the film holds an approval rating of based on reviews, with an average rating of . The site's critical consensus reads, "''Looking Glass'' gives Nicolas Cage a chance to turn in an atypically understated performance, but this is still a suspense thriller with a fatal dearth of suspense or thrills." On
Metacritic
Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...
, which assigns normalized rating to reviews, the film has a weighted average score of 33 out of 100, based on 12 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews".
''
The Hollywood Reporter
''The Hollywood Reporter'' (''THR'') is an American digital and print magazine which focuses on the Cinema of the United States, Hollywood film industry, film, television, and entertainment industries. It was founded in 1930 as a daily trade pap ...
'' wrote that "even the actors' fine efforts cannot rescue ''Looking Glass'' from terminal murkiness." Eric Cohn of
IndieWire
IndieWire (sometimes stylized as indieWIRE or Indiewire) is a film industry and review website that was established in 1996. The site's focus was predominantly independent film, although its coverage has grown to "to include all aspects of Hollyw ...
described Nicolas Cage's character as a "bored peeping tom" and called the film "
VOD bait" in his negative review. Robert Abele of the ''
Los Angeles Times
The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the Un ...
'' wrote that the playground in which the film operates "should be enough to make for a satisfyingly disreputable thriller" but that hoping for one "doesn't equal results." Jesse Hessenger of ''
The A.V. Club
''The A.V. Club'' is an American online newspaper and entertainment website featuring reviews, interviews, and other articles that examine films, music, television, books, games, and other elements of pop-culture media. ''The A.V. Club'' was cre ...
'' wrote, "Despite
age'spresence and the movie's atmosphere, ''Looking Glass'' is just another murder mystery without enough suspects."
Similarity to Gerald Foos
Reviewers, such as Craig Lindsey of the ''
Los Angeles Times
The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the Un ...
'', note the similarity of the motel's setup to the case of
Gerald Foos
Gerald Foos is the former owner of the Manor House Motel, which operated in Aurora, Colorado. He was the subject of Gay Talese's 2016 article "The Voyeur's Motel" in ''The New Yorker'', in which Talese disclosed that Foos was a long time voyeur of ...
, a former motel owner in Colorado who had modified his motel to allow him to spy on most of the rooms. Foos' setup was documented by
Gay Talese
Gaetano "Gay" Talese (; born February 7, 1932) is an American writer. As a journalist for ''The New York Times'' and ''Esquire'' magazine during the 1960s, Talese helped to define contemporary literary journalism and is considered, along with T ...
in the 2016 ''
New Yorker
New Yorker or ''variant'' primarily refers to:
* A resident of the State of New York
** Demographics of New York (state)
* A resident of New York City
** List of people from New York City
* ''The New Yorker'', a magazine founded in 1925
* ''The New ...
'' article "The Voyeur's Motel".
References
External links
*
*
''Looking Glass'' (2018)at
The Numbers
{{Tim Hunter
2018 films
2018 thriller films
American thriller films
American independent films
Films directed by Tim Hunter
Films set in motels
2018 independent films
BDSM in films
2010s English-language films
2010s American films
English-language thriller films