Trust

Directed by Brian DeCubellis, Trust follows well-to-do couple Brooke (Victoria Justice) and Owen (Matthew Daddario) as they’re forced to reevaluate their relationship after the threat of infidelity rears its head. It’s a well-worn setup that’s employed to watchable (if completely forgettable) effect by DeCubellis, as the filmmaker, working from a script written with Kristen Lazarian and K.S. Bruce, delivers a relatively well-paced drama that benefits from its unabashedly salacious storyline and proliferation of admittedly unexpected plot developments – with the latter certainly true of a mid-movie twist that effectively invigorates the somewhat sluggish proceedings. The agreeable emphasis on trashy happenings ultimately goes a long way towards compensating for a picture riddled with unimpressive elements, as Trust suffers from a generic, bland sensibility that’s reflected predominantly in its far-from-stylish visuals and one-note, less-than-dynamic performances (which are best described as competent yet entirely unimpressive). The end result is a just-good-enough melodrama that boasts all the complexity and depth of a garden-variety movie-of-the-week, although, to be fair, Trust does manage to sustain the viewer’s interest for the duration of its appropriately (and mercifully) brief running time.

**1/2 out of ****