I have to admit something about the movie TRUST. The first time I saw the trailer and the summary for this movie, the plot didn’t interest me overly much. A movie about infidelity just doesn’t sound like something I’d be interested in watching right now. So I’ll readily admit that I might not have been the best person to review this movie. I wanted to give it a chance, though, because of the cast.
I liked both Kat McNamara and Matthew Daddario in Shadowhunters, even if I didn’t like the show itself very much. I was also curious to see what Victoria Justice is up to these days – I grew up watching her Nickelodeon shows – and while I’m not particularly familiar with Lucien Laviscount, I liked what I saw of him in the trailer. I wanted so, so badly to like this movie.
Unfortunately, my worst fears about TRUST were all confirmed when I actually watched the screener. While I enjoyed parts of the movie, overall it ranged from ridiculous to straight up problematic at times.
Let’s start with the good. Fans of Matthew Daddario’s will enjoy the dorky, charming character he plays in this movie. His sense of humour comes through despite the clunky dialogue. The cast, overall, does a good job. Not a good enough job to salvage the movie, but if you’re here for your favourite actor or actress, I’m sure you’ll find something to like.
This is also a movie that keeps you guessing from start to finish. The mystery unravels in a way that makes you want to rewind and see which hints you missed. I watched it twice, voluntarily, which does say something about the way the story is told.
The reason the movie keeps you guessing, though, is because so little of the plot makes any sense at all. These characters seem to exist in a deranged parallel universe completely divorced from our own world. The big plot twist was so bizarre that all I could do was laugh. There were gaping plot holes all throughout the movie. Nobody talked like a human being. There’s also a running joke that one character rants about the homeless crisis whenever he gets drunk, which just didn’t seem funny to me.
There were more serious issues as well. The amount of casual sexual harassment that got passed off as flirting was inexcusable. For one, painting sexually explicit images of other people without their consent is not okay. Recording people without their consent? Also not okay. And intoxicated people cannot consent to sex. There were so many cases of dubious consent that went completely unaddressed. I didn’t think this needed to be said in 2021, but apparently the people who made this movie need to hear it.
I enjoyed watching all of these actors, but none of the characters were written in a way that made them even remotely likable or relatable. TRUST presents cheating as a normal thing that everyone does, and acts like it’s acceptable to be constantly worried about your partner cheating on you. So many scenes in this movie felt straight out of r/AreTheStraightsOK. I guess people like this must exist in real life, but personally, I’m glad that I’ve never had to meet them.
I do appreciate that the protagonists of TRUST are intended to be quite morally grey, and that the audience is supposed to feel conflicted about cheering for them. For some viewers, I’m sure this will be an interesting movie. But personally, I just couldn’t sympathize with any of the characters, or bring myself to root for them. And that was what ultimately killed the movie for me.
TRUST is available in select theatres and on demand now.
