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Glass Half-Empty

Nicolas Cage has 91 acting credits as of this writing. While I haven't seen all of them, I have seen quite a few. "Leaving Las Vegas", "The Rock", and the recent "Mom and Dad" are the ones I have enjoyed. "Looking Glass", despite its not fleshing out its characters and the lack of believability factor, still managed to hold my attention. This is primarily because it creates psychological tension with a bare minimum of on-screen violence.

Ray (cage) and his wife Maggie (Robin Tunney) have just arrived in a small town in Arizona, where they have just purchased a 10-room motel. They are attempting a fresh start in life after something horrific happened to their young child. We're not quite sure what happened because the flashbacks don't totally explain it.

Why the previous owner sold the motel to them is equally unclear, because he immediately fled town and disconnected his phone. Lots of little mysteries keep popping up and none of them get answered. The primary one is why it is that guests usually request Room number 10.

Ray, besides being the owner, also does every other motel-related chore, except for cleaning the rooms. There is one chambermaid. When he wanders into a basement beneath the motel, he finds one door with a heavy padlock on it. While shopping for supplies he finds a device to snap the lock and upon returning to the motel, he does just that.

What he finds is a path that leads to a pane of a glass that is a double-mirror that allows him to see inside Room number 10 and what he sees is a couple in the middle of a sexual act. He is transfixed by it.

From that point on, lots of sexual and criminal intrigue unfold and Ray is caught up in it. How it all plays out is the crux of "Looking Glass", and it's all extremely uneven. There is just enough here to maintain interest, but not much more. This glass is more half-empty than half-full.