If Trust is not the worst
movie of the year so far, and it’s not, it’s certainly one of the queasiest. I
could imagine a good version of a movie about a young teen girl seduced by an
online stranger who then rapes her and throws her, and her family’s, life into
emotional overdrive. This is not that movie. Not at all. It’s a sick vortex of
awful hysterics and kids-these-days grumbling that plays as overblown and,
worse, fake. It even sucks in usually dependable actors like Clive Owen,
Catherine Keener, and Viola Davis. Young Liana Liberato, as the victim, is quite good as well, but the film isn't up to the level of the cast. I’m not expecting a movie like this to have
easy resolution, or resolution at all for that matter, but I wish director David Schwimmer and writers Andy Bellin and Robert Festinger could have had something of
interest to add to a timely discussion. Instead, they have this manipulative,
pat tripe masquerading as a Very Serious Statement. It’s clunky, formulaic, and
uses online culture as nothing more than an overwhelming source
of paranoia. What a slimy well-meaning picture. Here’s a review in two onomatopoeias: Yuck
and Ugh. It’s so purposelessly cruel
to its characters and its audience that the name of the girl’s school, New
Trier High School, is an unfortunate coincidence.
No comments:
Post a Comment