BIG CITY BLUES // A FILM REVIEW OF "TRUST"
Brooke (Victoria Justice) is a gallery owner in New York City who's recently signed a lothario of a painter Ansgar (Lucien Laviscount), who seems to sleep with any woman he can stand at least four feet from. His art pieces are all hailed as brilliant, so he's quite "a get" for Brooke, seemingly paving the way to much bigger things. Her husband Owen (Matthew Daddario) is a local Newscaster, one that is often saddled with silly local stories about dogs and strange happenings around town. What he really wants to do is cover hard hitting news. As Christmas approaches, Brooke's new painter client has a very important buyer who last minute asks them to fly to Paris and meet him to discuss the sale, much to the annoyance of her husband who was trying to surprise her with a trip there himself, which she turned down. As tension mounts, a bond of distrust begins to form between them and both begin to suspect each other is unfaithful, building their own futures into a holiday they will most definitely want to forget.
Let's just say it: TRUST is a trashy film. Trashy in the way of a Lifetime film is, or like some straight to VOD romances. And it knows it. But sadly, it's not a good trashy film. The characters are so unlikable that you wish all of them get the worst coming to them. The marriage of Brooke and Owen is a highly dysfunctional one, one that is not built on trust in any way. When she suspects that he might be cheating on her, she steals his iPad and tracks him. When that doesn't fully work, she hires someone to flirt with him at a bar and do anything with him up to having sex to see if he'll go for it. These shenanigans will all be recorded as well. Let me repeat that: SHE HIRES SOMEONE TO CHEAT ON HER HUSBAND AND RECORD IT. How does she think this will turn out, even if he says no to her?! Owen justifiably doesn't trust Ansgar; The celebrated painter is a grade-A creep. But Owen is also the kind of guy who's so self-involved that he buys tickets to Paris a couple days before Christmas to surprise his very successful and busy wife without telling her. Also, how is a popular news broadcaster getting that kind of time off? But when she runs off to Paris with Angsar for work, all bets are off and he reveals himself to be pretty slimy. There's not possible happy ending for these people, no matter what the screenwriters are trying to tell us.
TRUST bills itself as a sort of "romantic mystery thriller," but the only mystery is how horrible everyone can be to each other. The film itself is based on a stage play from LA by one of the co-screenwriters and may very well be a much better product on stage than on film. Likely, however, I would bet it's about the same. It's meant to be powerful but it comes off just gross, with a tacked on ending that is so laughably bad that I actually did laugh out loud. If this is what romance means to them, it is much safer staying single. And maybe everyone can stop being so self involved and go support someone worth it, like their co-star Ronny Chieng. I hear he's a funny guy and has a great future ahead of him.
GRADE: D
BASED ON THE PLAY PUSH BY Kristen Lazarian SCREENPLAY BY K.S. Bruce, Brian DeCubellis, Kristen Lazarian DIRECTED BY Kristen Lazarian STARRING Victoria Justice, Matthew Daddario, Lucien Laviscount, Katherine McNamara, Ronny Chieng, Rosa Gilmore. NOW PLAYING IN SELECTED THEATRES AND ON VOD.