THE TRUST (2016)
A film review by David N. Butterworth
Copyright 2016 David N. Butterworth

**1/2 (out of ****)

Nicolas Cage and Elijah Wood co-star as inventors of the medical apparatus consisting of a pad usually supported by a belt for maintaining a hernia in
a reduced state.
No, wait. That's "The Truss."
"The Trust" (two Ts) is about a pair of crooked cops, Cage and Wood also,
who, during the course of their corrupt police investigations, stumble
across a secret bank vault in the rear of a grocery store--the money goes
in but never comes out--and decide to divvy up the contents.
Cage is almost always watchable, even when he's bad (make that *especially* when he's bad), and his Jim Stone is another off-the-wall
weirdo he seems to relish playing. He's erratic, explosive, and
unpredictable. Wood, as usual, mostly provides goggle-eyed reaction shots whenever his relatively-stable David Waters isn't drinking or whoring or getting stoned--it's our tax dollars at work! But somehow the pairing
works.
I wouldn't go as far as to recommend "The Trust" exactly, but it's competently made (by the Brothers Brewer) and that counts for a lot these
days, when anyone with an iPhone can essentially remake "Titanic" while slopping about in the tub. Dance-pop Internet phenom Sky Ferreira gets
third billing, yet plays a character credited as "Woman" (so much for
gender equality) and Jerry Lewis, who settles for fourth billing, is only
in the one scene--maybe co-directors Alex and Benjamin thought the French
would get a chuckle out of him playing a nonagenarian (he *is* 90, after
all).
"The Trust" announces itself as a visually-arresting crime thriller
set in Las Vegas, but the script favors irreverent buddy banter over
thrills, especially in the first act. When Jim and David finally start drilling into the vault from above, the film becomes more absorbing,
although you'd swear these guys were professional safe crackers, not bent police officers, the way they negotiate all those pin tumbler latches and rings. It's probably fair to say that you won't guess the ending, as the Brewers play their cards pretty close to their chests, but I will tell you
this much: no trusses are involved.

--
David N. Butterworth
rec.arts.movies.reviews
butterworthdavidn@gmail.com

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