“What
if your teenaged daughter fell
into the hands of a sexual predator who
had groomed her via the Internet by
convincing her that he, too, was a
teenager? A devastated father must
come to terms with his child’s loss of
innocence in the brilliantly constructed
film Trust...”
BELIEVING HIS FAMILY IS SAFE and secure in their suburban home, advertising
executive Will Cameron (Clive Owen: The International; Children Of Men)
has no idea that his world is about to turn upside down.
He and his wife Lynne (Catherine Keener: Capote; Where The Wild Things Are)
are aware that their fourteen-year-old daughter Annie (Liana Liberato in an
incredible break-out performance) speaks to her contemporaries on an Internet
chat room. What they do not realise is that the friend she calls Charlie (Chris
Henry Coffey) is not the High School boy he pretends to be — and that he
has already 'confessed' to her that he is really in his twenties.
After some weeks of chat-room exchanges and telephone calls, Annie feels that
she really knows Charlie, seeing him as her first real boyfriend. He makes her
feel understood, loved and beautiful and gives her encouragement as she tries
for the school volleyball team. She trusts him completely.
When her brother Peter (Spencer Curnutt) is taken to his new college by their
parents, Annie agrees to meet Charlie at a shopping mall. However, she is horrified
to find that he is actually a man in his mid-thirties who persuades her by guile
to go back to his motel room, gives her inappropriate gifts and then seduces
her.
Annie's best friend Tanya has seen her with an older man and has reported her
concerns. Now the police, led by special FBI agent Doug Tate (Jason Clarke),
want to question Annie about her ordeal — and Annie is unable to forgive
her friend for 'betraying' her.
Annie's distraught parents are devastated that they could not somehow have prevented
their daughter from being assaulted. Lynne becomes depressed and Will's work
is affected as he is unable to concentrate. He cannot even bring himself to
look at the sexual imagery that is used to sell advertising in his work.
Retreating into herself as she tries to come to terms with what has happened
and to deal with Charlie's lack of contact, Annie withdraws from her family,
unable to accept that she is a victim of a crime.
Unwilling to co-operate with Doug or her parents, she refuses to accept that
Charlie groomed her for weeks to get her into the motel room. She refuses to
lie to trap him, insisting he is sweet an kind and funny. He gets me, she says,
believing she is special to him and that without him she would not have made
the volleyball team.
As the strain begins to show on the whole family, her deeply traumatised father
pushes himself to the limit to try to bring Annie's assailant to justice. But
there are more shocks to come when Annie is tormented beyond reason at school
and her parents gain illicit access to the chat room transcripts.
Even when Will finally tells his friend and work colleague Al Hart (Noah Emmerich)
what has happened to his daughter, Al seems relieved rather than alarmed that
'Charlie' was someone Annie met over the Internet.
Becoming more angry and confrontational towards Annie, how can Will finally
deal with what has happened to his daughter? Can he ever understand why Annie
didn't tell him and Lynne everything? And what sort of man is Charlie? An unloved
loner who can only relate to young, malleable girls — or something worse?
Shocked into disbelief and running through a gamut of emotions including grief,
anger and guilt, Will and Lynne struggle to come to terms with what has happened
to their once-innocent daughter. The devastating revelation sets in motion a
chain of events that forever change their lives as Will fights to bring about
his own kind of justice.
Trust is exceptionally well put together, well observed and so totally
believable that at times you could be watching a documentary. The word 'friend'
is a meaningless word when it applies to someone you meet on the Internet —
especially if you are a fourteen-year-old girl who hasn't a clue to whom she
is speaking. A poignant warning for our times.
Trust also features: Viola Davis (Eat, Pray, Love; Knight and Day) as
Gail Friedman; Joe Sikora as Rob Moscono; Aislinn Debutch as Katie; Olivia Wickline
as Louise; Zoe Levin as Brittany; Zanny Laird as Serena Edmonds; Yolanda Mendoza
as Tanya; Shenell Randall as Alexa; Tristan Peach as Charlie; and Pamela Washington
as Ad Agency Lady.
Music is by Nathan Larson; Director of Photography is Andrzej Sekula; Exectuive
Producers are: Avi Lerner, Danny Dimbort, Boaz Davidson, Trevor Short and John
Thompson; Produced by Tom Hodges, Ed Cathell III and Dana Golomb, David Schwimmer,
Bob Greenhut and Heidi Jo Markel; Directed by David Schwimmer; Written by Andy
Bellin and Robert Festinger.
• From director David Schwimmer (Run Fatboy
Run) comes Trust, a gripping, modern-day thriller featuring outstanding
performances from three Academy Award nominees: Clive Owen, Catherine Keener
and Viola Davis. Trust is a haunting depiction of a very real, grossly underestimated
and hard to detect danger and will be available to own and rent on DVD and Blu-ray
from 29 August 2011. Running Time: 106 Minutes Approximately; Certificate: 15;
RRP: £12.99 DVD; £17.99 Blu-ray.
"Trust is exceptionally well put together, well observed and so totally
believable that at times you could be watching a documentary… A warning for
our times" — Maggie Woods, MotorBar
Director David Schwimmer has been involved with the Rape Foundation for fourteen
years and has been on the Board of Directors for the past ten years. He has
drawn inspiration from his work and pays tribute to the FBI and counsellors
who work hard to support both the victims and their family. It is a project
close to his heart and he hopes that Trust will create more of an understanding
of this widespread problem.
“What
if your teenaged daughter fell