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'Trust' review

David Schwimmer directs an icky lesson in online stranger danger

By Geoff Berkshire

Metromix
March 31, 2011

Critic's Rating:

Clive Owen and Catherine Keener (Credit: Charles S. Hodes/Millennium Films)

Catherine Keener as Lynn Cameron in ``Trust.''

Clive Owen as Will Cameron in ``Trust.''

Liana Liberato as Annie Cameron in ``Trust.''

(L-R) Liana Liberato as Annie Cameron and Catherine Keener as Lynn Cameron in ``Trust.''

Trust

Running time:: 106 minutes

Rated:: R

Cast:

Clive Owen -

Will Cameron

Catherine Keener -

Lynn Cameron

Liana Liberato -

Annie Cameron

Jason Clarke -

Agent Doug Tate

Noah Emmerich -

See full cast

Director:: David Schwimmer

Overall User Rating:: (0 ratings)

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["Trust" premiered at the 2010 Toronto International Film Festival. The following is an excerpt from Metromix's coverage of the festival.]

David Schwimmer's second film as a director (after the already forgotten "Run Fatboy Run") makes the unusual choice of pairing Clive Owen and Catherine Keener as suburban Chicago parents of three. But the movie is really focused on their daughter (strong newcomer Liana Liberato), who unwittingly falls into an online relationship with a much older man.

If you've seen "Hard Candy"…this is nothing like that. "Trust" attempts a serious and sensitive look at the young victims of online predators, but it's undone by uneven writing and worse direction. When Schwimmer leaves everything up to the actors—including Oscar nominee Viola Davis as a child psychologist—they usually deliver, but he proves less able to handle the film's modest action and suspense sequences.

I'm not sure what the film is really trying to accomplish—other than giving parents nightmares about what their kids might be doing online. It's ultimately little more than a racy "Afterschool Special" or an episode of "To Catch a Predator" that confuses itself for "In the Bedroom."