Searing Performances Elevate David Schwimmer’s ‘Trust’

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CHICAGO – There’s an unsettling potency to relationships that are born online. They take place entirely within the mind, which is capable of producing idealized images never to be equaled by reality. With the right stroke of keys, a savvy writer could potentially seduce a susceptible victim into emotional entrapment. That’s why the Internet is a predator’s playground.
 
In light of recent rumors concerning Google’s plans for a facial recognition app, there couldn’t a more appropriate time for a film like “Trust” to be seen and discussed by families across America. A passing glance at the film’s premise may lead one to expect little more than a moralizing weepie destined for Lifetime, but such an assumption could not be further from the truth. This is a film of startling power and wrenching emotion, with several sequences that emit all the painful vulnerability of an open wound.

What a remarkable achievement for David Schwimmer, whose only other directorial efforts include a handful of TV movies, as well as 2008’s fitfully amusing comedy, “Run Fatboy Run.” Though I’ve admired some of his past work, I would’ve never expected his latest film to move me more deeply than all ten of last year’s Best Picture nominees. I honestly can’t remember the last film that caused me to blink back tears (in the critic’s screening room, no less). It’s clear that Schwimmer has mastered the difficult task of creating an atmosphere onset that gives his actors the necessary comfort to deliver intense performances of unflinching honesty. He refuses to accompany the work of his cast with an obtrusive score, trusting them instead to hit the right notes. There are few things more viscerally affecting than watching an actor go through an emotional transformation, as the camera captures every nuance with such meticulous detail that the audience begins to feel as if they are going through it themselves. The character’s journey becomes our own simply through the recognition of shared humanity. When “Trust” ended, I felt like I had been through the ringer with these characters, and left feeling both shaken and rejuvenated. Surely this is the mark of a great film.

Liana Liberato delivers a revelatory performance in David Schwimmer’s Trust.
Liana Liberato delivers a revelatory performance in David Schwimmer’s Trust.
Photo credit: Millennium Entertainment

In the opening scenes of “Trust,” two lines of communication run concurrently within the confines of a suburban household, as fourteen-year-old Annie (Liana Liberato) talks to her parents while chatting with her viral boyfriend, Charlie. For the first third of the film, he’s an invisible presence, embodied only by typed words that take on an eerie life of their own, surrounding the blushing young teenager as she falls hopelessly under their spell. Schwimmer creates an intriguing tension in scenes where Annie and Charlie’s correspondence is juxtaposed over footage of the content family, oblivious to the intruder in their midst. Annie is so captivated by her newfound flame that she begrudgingly accepts his gradual confession that he’s not quite as young as he originally claimed. By the time she agrees to meet him at a mall, the audience’s mounting dread has built to an excruciating degree. Their encounter is evocative of the early scenes in “Hard Candy,” as Charlie (Chris Henry Coffey) gently coaxes his innocent prey into giving him exactly what he wants, while gently shifting the guilt onto her with lines such as, “You made me think you could handle this…” Before stealing her virginity, Charlie has already stolen her thoughts, which she shared so freely online.

After Annie returns home, lost in the haze of confusion, the film could’ve easily devolved into a routine revenge drama. Yet the script by Andy Bellin and Robert Festinger (co-writer of another riveting drama, “In the Bedroom”) goes in a much more thoughtful direction, focusing instead on the deception between family members, and the potentially dangerous ways in which we deceive ourselves. Annie’s father, Will (Clive Owen), is so overcome with rage that he ends up spending more time hunting down the sex offender than helping his daughter through the recovery process. His wife, Lynn (Catherine Keener), feels equally helpless as information about her daughter’s rape case becomes marked as classified, while an FBI agent (Jason Clarke) takes charge of the investigation. Therapist Gail (Viola Davis) patiently listens to Annie as she insists that her parents would like Charlie if only they knew him. These scenes are highly evocative of the Hirsch-Hutton counseling sessions in “Ordinary People,” where the patient ended up answering his own questions, while the therapist provided a serene enough space for him to do so.

Clive Owen and Catherine Keener star in David Schwimmer’s Trust.
Clive Owen and Catherine Keener star in David Schwimmer’s Trust.
Photo credit: Millennium Entertainment

There have been a lot of great roles for young women lately, and no shortage of great up-and-coming actresses to do them justice. Annie is as complex and challenging a role as has ever been assigned to a performer in her teens, and Liberato absolutely knocks it out of the park. Though she’s sported potential before (particularly in the Fox Faith flop, “The Last Sin Eater”), this is a revelatory turn for her, richly deserving of the Silver Hugo Award she received at last year’s Chicago International Film Festival, as well as any other accolades that may come her way. She’s well matched by Owen, who delivers what is easily his best work to date. At the heart of the picture is the mistrust that grows between Will and Annie, eventually exploding into a fiery confrontation where the mixture of despair and anger on their faces is utterly heartbreaking. Late in the film, both characters have a scene in which they finally come to a realization about themselves, resulting in a breakdown as agonizing as it is cathartic. Schwimmer allows his camera to linger on the faces of his mesmerizing actors as they achieve a naked authenticity rarely seen in modern American cinema.

Only a few minor quibbles emerge as an afterthought—such as the film’s excess of crises in its final act, or the overt symbolism at Owen’s workplace, where he’s repeatedly framed in front of pictures that make him look as if he’s literally in over his head. I have no doubt that Schwimmer will continue to grow as a filmmaker, but “Trust” certainly represents an extraordinary leap in the right direction.

‘Trust’ stars Liana Liberato, Clive Owen, Catherine Keener, Jason Clarke, Viola Davis, Noah Emmerich and Chris Henry Coffey. It was written by Andy Bellin and Robert Festinger and directed by David Schwimmer. It opened April 1 in local theaters. It is rated R.

HollywoodChicago.com staff writer Matt Fagerholm

By MATT FAGERHOLM
Staff Writer
HollywoodChicago.com
matt@hollywoodchicago.com

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