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When tragedy strikes, different people handle the situation in different ways, turning to family or friends or work to get through the pain. The thriller Looking Glass shows one terrible way to overcome tragedy: by buying a creepy motel in the middle of nowhere.
Looking Glass moves into a small-town desert motel with Ray and Maggie (Nicolas Cage and Robin Tunney), a married couple trying to escape the pain in their past and start fresh. But while life as motel managers starts out smoothly enough, it isn’t long before strange things start to happen. Ray discovers a secret passage under the motel, which allows him to witness some troubling things. And when a guest is later found dead and a slightly too-friendly police officer starts asking questions, it’s just the beginning of the problems for this troubled pair.
Almost everything about this desert thriller is eerie and off-putting. This isn’t the story of a happy couple looking for a fun new adventure as motel managers; Ray and Maggie are troubled and haunted by their past. And, of course, instead of ending up in a quaint resort town, they end up in a small town in the desert, where the local cops are a little too friendly and the neighbors are downright creepy.
Probably the biggest surprise here is that the motel itself is the least creepy thing about the film. It’s dated but neat and charming—the kind of place where you might not actually mind staying. But the shabby charm of the motel just covers up the troubling things happening inside (and beneath) its rooms.
As it turns out, there’s a whole lot of shady stuff going on at the Motor Way. A lot of characters come and go, and a lot of strange things take place. And while that does help to maintain the film’s unsettling feel, it never allows viewers to settle into the story.
At the same time, none of the drama really pans out. The characters clearly have a rocky relationship; they’re still mourning the loss of a child while tackling their own demons. But while all of the hardship and drama could possibly make for a tense and gripping story, it gets little more than a mention here.
What’s left, then, is just an overall creepy feeling, some halfhearted fights, an all-too-obvious outcome, and the entertainment value that comes with Nicolas Cage being Nicolas Cage.
It’s unclear whether Looking Glass was trying to be a B-movie thriller or a dark but thoughtful indie—but it doesn’t really succeed in either. It isn’t a terrible film, but it’s an entirely forgettable one.
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