Trust

Trust by far is one of the most disturbing movies I’ve seen in a long time merely because of the fact that it completely fucked with my head and draws a very thin line between sexual morality and sexual perversion.  The story revolves around 14-year old Annie and her awkwardness transitioning into high school.  She goes online and starts talking to a boy she really likes.  He reveals that he’s 16 and the relationship turns into a crush, on her end.  Things get sexual and he reveals to her that he’s actually 20 years old.  Weirded out, Annie still continues talking to him until he reveals that he is 25.  If you haven’t figured it out already, yes this movie is about an online predator (older white male obviously) he seeks out girls between the ages of 12 and 14.  Pedophilia is already a touchy subject, and director David Schwimmer does his job and gets right up there in order to really make the audience feel uncomfortable and question their sexual morality.  The story goes that Annie falls in love with her predator, Charlie, loses her virginity to him, and is so caught up in her feelings for him that she doesn’t realize that he is a pedophile preying on her.  She is so emotionally attached to him and the way he manipulated her, that she doesn’t even understand she was sexually abused until later on in the story when she finds out there have been many other girls before her.  This is only the tip of the iceberg.

The story becomes even more sexually confusing and disturbing when the audience see’s how Annie’s father, Will, gets involved.  As a head honcho for a major clothing brand, he is used to seeing young models wearing skimpy to no clothing in order to advertise for him.  This is the point where the movie becomes almost perverse.  Will is haunted by the images of his 14-year old daughter and her 35-year old lover and begins not only picturing them having sex, but he sees his daughter’s face on every scantily-clad model he comes in contact with or sees in his brand’s advertisements.  In his mind, he pictures her getting raped and begging for help.  Only until he begins investigating the case himself does the story get even more disturbing.  In his mind, he thinks that his 14-year old daughter was completely innocent, with no such sexual urges and almost too pure to ever willingly perform any sexual acts.  He finds out from reading her correspondence between her and Charlie that she was indeed very overly-sexual and he flips out over the fact that he had no idea his daughter wasn’t as innocent as he thought.  From this point on, things begin to get weird (even if you didn’t think this movie COULD get any more uncomfortable).  He starts picturing her sexually and from then on the movie is a little hard to watch.

Between Will, who thinks his daughter has the innocence of a 2-year old, and Annie, who doesn’t understand pedophilia and insists she’s madly in love with Charlie, the movie is uncomfortable because it is so realistic of what happens within our society today.  An average American family who seems to have it all together is absolutely torn apart by their daughter’s sexual abuse and the 2 main characters’ inabilities to cope with it. Obviously this movie isn’t horror, but it’s very perverse and stunningly realistic.  If you’re into that uncomfortable type of film that makes you cringe, I would say watch it.  Otherwise, you probably aren’t man enough to handle this film.  I gave it 4 out of 5 stars, it was really pretty good.  The acting is impeccable on Annie’s part and thats what I think made the film so watchable.  For someone so young, she had what it took to make a hell of a statement as an actress and star in a very hard role.  If you are looking for a depressing drama, this is your film.