Loft - Love, Lust, Lies - DVD

Movie: Friends Matthias (Barry Atsma), Robert (Gijs Naber), Bert (Fedja van Huet), Tom (Chico Kenzari) and Willem (Jeroen van Koningsbrugge) share a big secret: together they have rented a prestigious loft apartment in the heart of Amsterdam, where they can live out all their extramarital desires, especially sexual ones, completely undisturbed. They stick together to keep this secret, but their mutual loyalty is soon put to the test. For one morning they find a dead woman, naked and handcuffed to the bed, in the loft. With no signs of forced entry into the apartment, it's clear that one of them must be the killer. While the mutual suspicions increase more and more, the puzzling puzzle slowly but surely comes together to form a complete picture that still has quite a few surprises in store for everyone involved...

With Loft, Belgian director Erik van Looy (Murderer Without Memory) was able to achieve one of the biggest successes in Belgian cinema history to date in his home country in 2008. So it's no wonder that it didn't take long for the successful story to be sold to other countries as well. Van Looy was originally supposed to direct not only the US remake starring Karl Urban, James Marsden and Rachael Taylor, due for release in 2013, but also the Dutch version. The latter, however, went to Antoinette Beumer, whose work did not always prove to be uncomplicated. For example, plans to cast her famous sister Famke Janssen in one of the smaller roles fell through. And then there was a serious accident on the set, in which Beumer, among other employees, was injured to such an extent that she was out of action for several weeks. She was replaced by van Looy, who was able to direct some scenes of the Dutch version after all.

Despite these difficulties, the success story of Loft was repeated in the second version. In the Netherlands, the remake jumped straight to the top of the box office charts and was one of the big hits of 2011. Like the original, this version did not make it to theaters in Germany. But of course that does not diminish the quality of this thriller. The cast is excellent, the set atmospheric and the convoluted staging can still captivate even if the original and thus the numerous plot twists are already known.

Surely the question may be allowed, whether an almost identical remake was really necessary and whether one should not rather recommend the original instead of the fake. My personal opinion is that when a remake is as well done as this one and it has the effect of making a good story known and accessible to a wider audience, such 1:1 remakes have quite a justification. Of course, the original is always preferable to the remake here too, but if you don't know van Looy's film and are simply looking for exciting, cleverly constructed entertainment with a slight erotic tingle and good actors, you can safely reach for this Dutch cinema hit. Worth seeing!

Picture + Sound: The image of the DVD pleases with a high image sharpness, which can mostly be maintained even in the rather dark scenes. The rather reduced color scheme in many scenes underlines the undercooled atmosphere of the film very well. The sound remains rather subdued for long stretches, though here and there music and minor sound effects do provide a bit of surround dynamics. Good!

Extras: Unfortunately, the DVD has no bonus material to offer.

Conclusion: Loft is a suspenseful thriller, but can only be recommended to viewers who do not know the 2008 original from Belgium, as this Dutch remake is an almost identical remake. However, for those who don't know the original and don't want to wait for the already shot US remake, this also very well done version of the cleverly constructed story can be highly recommended

An article by Frankfurt-Tipp