Schwimmer's 'Trust' a little too preachy
David Schwimmer's “Trust” methodically, earnestly, painstakingly details a 14-year-old girl's seduction by an online pedophile, then meticulously chronicles the emotional aftershocks experienced by the teen, her mother and her father.
For a while, you think the girl is the main character. But she's not.
The father is.
“Trust,” to its credit, immerses us in the guilt of a North Shore dad who failed to serve his prime directive as protector of the family.
The drama also, to its detriment, wags its finger at a culture obsessed with turning children into sex objects. It slaps us around for not being more aware and sensitive to victims of sexual abuse.
Schwimmer, a founder of Chicago's Lookingglass Theatre, directs his second feature (the comic “Run Fatboy Run” was his first) with a zeal that almost feels like a lecture.
Nonetheless, “Trust” is a valuable, honest drama that treats its subject matter with equal parts insight and alarm.
Young and vibrant volleyball player Annie Cameron (a wonderfully cast Liana Liberato, who won best actress at the Chicago International Film Festival last year) goes to New Trier High School. She's constantly on her phone and computer messaging friends, and we see the messages flash on the screen as if we're reading them along with her.
She starts a chat friendship with another high school volleyball player, Charlie from California. So she thinks.
Her dad and mom, Will and Lynn (Clive Owen and Catherine Keener), are occupied with sending their firstborn Peter (Spencer Curnutt) off to college.
Gradually, “Charlie” confesses to the eager Annie that he's not really a high school student. He's in college. She doesn't care. She thinks they're made for each other.
With spider-like precision, “Charlie” spins the proverbial web of deception until he convinces her to meet him in a shopping mall. Then go with him to a motel room.
Schwimmer handles the seduction/rape with a delicacy that doesn't blunt the terrible nature of the act.
In the weeks that follow, Annie's glow dims, then dies.
Then guilt and helplessness eat away at Will's soul until he develops a hypersensitivity to advertising campaigns that employ underage models in provocative underwear. (Does he really need to become ill to make this point?)
Will thinks about buying a gun, and that takes the story into unearned “Death Wish” territory. Will's theft of documents from an FBI agent also feels desperate, as if Andy Bellin's credited screenplay didn't trust the drama to be compelling enough without it.
Meanwhile, “Charlie” (played with horrific normalcy by Chris Henry Coffey) disappears from the story, because this isn't about revenge or justice.
It's about a family surviving a brutal attack and gathering the strength to heal from it.
Schwimmer cowrote and codirected “Trust” at the Lookingglass Theater last year after it had already been launched as a movie. Schwimmer reportedly is a staunch rape-prevention advocate.
That advocacy comes across loud and noisy in “Trust,” with both good and bad ramifications.
<b>"Trust"</b>
<b>Two stars</b>
<b>Starring:</b> Clive Owen, Catherine Keener, Liana Liberato, Jason Clark, Viola Davis, Noah Emmerich
<b>Directed by:</b> David Schwimmer
<b>Other:</b> A Millennium Films release. Rated R for language, nudity, sexual situations, violence. 106 minute