Being the most succesful movie ‘of all times’ at some moment in some region of the world, isn’t always a blessing. By now, there are a lot of people who start to feel sick in te stomach at the thought of having to watch Titanic yet again, or they just want to hit something when they hear the opening tune of The Sound Of Music. Is Erik Van Looy’s Loft, the most visited movie in Belgian cinemas of all time, destined to a similar fate? Let’s hope not.

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It will propably never come to this. Because this movie isn’t an enormous event filled with special effects, nor is it stuffed with musical catchiness. This is a simple, quite sober actor movie about five friends who share a loft in Antwerp in which they can receive their mistresses without any disturbance. But then, one morning, one of them opens up the place only to find a dead girl in the bed. Immediately the suspicions rise and their mutual trust disappears, while they try to figure out what happened. It’s hard to say anything more without giving the end away, but the plots twists and turns like a snake on acid.

Because of the lack of real action the movie has to count on three things: the actors, the scenery and the script. The actors are performing great to outstanding. Flanders is a small place and most of the actors are virtually in everything, but Van Looy managed to select the best, and get the best out of them. The whole gang are a pleasure to watch. The men get most of the attention, but the women too deserve applause, especially Marie Vinck and Veerle Baetens.

The film is, to state is simple, cool as hell. From the opening credits to the climax on the balcony, Van Looy repeated and improved all the good things from De Zaak Alzheimer (Memory Of A Killer) and added some new tricks. The locations are superb. The script is not exactly easy. The basic idea is great, and the slow untangling of the web of deceit is intriguing to follow. Alas, as said before, after about two thirds of the movie it can get hard to see clear, which is not ideal for the credibility. This problems soften after a second viewing, though.

Loft deserves to be on first place and in due time, this will probably only be confirmed. Catch this movie at Studio 1 on October 28th. |