This straight to DVD, "paint by numbers" thriller staring Nicolas Cage and Nicole Kidman was one hell of a disappointment. The home invasion sub-genre while popular continually devours itself by its own lack of originality. There were a few moments in Trespass where the story could have taken a much more substantial route but rather then strive for something original the story falls back into the safe "paint by numbers" genre style. So in short - once you've seen one you've seen them all.
I have no idea where it went wrong but there was once a time when Nicolas Cage was hailed as being a great talent of cinema. During the past 10 years I can only count two films that feature the quality of acting he was once known for - 2009's doomsday epic Knowing & 2011's fantastic Drive Angry. There were scenes in Trespass that were obviously meant to be tense & on the edge but they were stripped of that feeling by the sub-par performance of Nicolas Cage as Kyle Miller. I found myself laughing several times when I should have been rooting for his character. He was just that bad. Played by someone else the character of Kyle Miller could have helped anchor this movie a little more and allow it to regain the intensity that it lacked.
The supporting cast (Nicole Kidman included) worked with what they had but I just wasn't able to invest in caring whether they lived or died. Nicole Kidman who is still such a great talent was reduced to spending the majority of this film sobbing and crawling along the ground. There was no need for the character of Sarah Miller (Nicole Kidman) to be played by someone of Kidmans stature. This character could have been played by anyone. The character Avery Miller (Liana Liberato) has a couple of great scenes towards the end of this film.
Trespass had the chance to go down a different route but sadly it went the safe, predictable path that we've all seen before.
