Reviews: The Trust

The Trust, former good actors make the worst movies. 

Have you seen it? Where's my career!!??
Give it back you son of a bitch!

Nicolas Cage and Elijah Wood star in the dirty cop heist movie, The Trust, a nearly nonsensical study in two actors trying to out creep each other with awkward physical embellishments and no dedication whatsoever. 

Resting on a bare bones story that's loaded with plot holes, unresolved ideas, and absolutely inane scripting problems, The Trust looks cheap, sounds cheap, and is the budgetless poster child for crappy VOD flicks. Hinging on performances from a has-been and a one time Hobbit, this little flick is a semi-embarrassment for both Wood and Cage. Other than a decent last chapter, the movie vanquishes itself almost immediately by never engaging its audience. It stringently abuses a paint by numbers approach to the corruption genre as the story never builds or hits any real stride. 

With a silly plot about two socially inept dirty police officers, the movie is a study in poor directorial decisions and how easily two good actors can be turned reprehensible. With Wood repeating some of the same mannerisms and strange quirkiness from his role in Maniac and Cage doing his darnedest to do the same thing over and over again, The Trust is a boorish attempt at trying to rouse something creative out of these two. As Cage continues to pay off his tax debt, this is just another non-committal, straight to video type of flick for a man that used to command multi-million dollar paychecks. And he fails at almost every turn. Using the same type of outlandish line delivery he's repeated for years now, Cage becomes uncomfortable and annoying to watch. Backed by Wood playing his average a-typical everyman, The Trust takes Nicolas back to Las Vegas again and leaves him there to die a sad, sad professional death. 

Nic, relax. I think I found your career.
It's in this safe. 

There have been some mixed reviews of this film. In all honesty, you may find small traits to enjoy. The last few minutes have a couple captivating qualities. But, there's just not enough here to paste together a ninety minute film. With another horrendous role from the talentless Sky Ferreira, a cameo bit by Jerry Lewis, and a grating Ethan Suplee still acting like himself, The Trust asks its viewers to sit idly by while the movie goes absolutely nowhere but down. Going in with expectations held high, this crime drama is just more average crap from people that can do way better than this. 

Maybe one of these days, when Nicolas Cage gets out of whatever hole he's in, pays back all his debts, and apologizes to Hollywood for being a pain in the ass, we'll get a good movie from him again. Until then, he'll keep churning out these haggardly movies that do nothing more than drag his name through the mud. And Elijah, you deserve better. 

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Score  


-CG