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May 13, 2016 By Stephen Danay Web Exclusive

Jim Stone and David Waters are a pair of bored cops working evidence processing in the Las Vegas police department. After stumbling across a suspiciously high bail payment for a low-level drug dealer, Jim and David begin their own ill-advised investigation, which leads to an out of the way grocery store containing a large hidden vault. They may not know what’s in the vault, but they know they want in.

Based on its premise and cast, The Trust, directed by Alex and Ben Brewer, seems like a direct-to-VOD knock-off of the films directed by another team of brothers, Joel and Ethan Coen. And while The Trust shares several broad elements with the work of the Coens—incompetent criminals; whiplash-inducing turns between comedy and drama; sudden reversals of fortune –- without ever fully matching their skill and style, the film succeeds both as a twisty little thriller and as an ideal vehicle for its two stars.

Despite being very different actors who are at very different points in their lives, Nicolas Cage and Elijah Wood are currently on oddly similar career paths. Despite spending the late nineties as an in-demand romantic lead, a successful action hero and an Academy-Award winner, age and fiscal insolvency have seen Cage trading on his over-the-top, meme-birthing insanity in Netflix-ready schlock with titles like Rage, Stolen and Pay the Ghost. Meanwhile, after starring in one of the most successful and influential film series of all time, Elijah Wood has also settled into a groove – albeit willingly and with a bit more critical success – as a B-movie star, producing and starring in off-beat horror films like Open Windows, Grand Piano and Cooties. What’s so remarkable about The Trust is not that either actor would take a part in it, but that it would make such excellent use of their talents and personas. As Stone, Cage’s explosive, staccato delivery and wild-eyed facial expressions are present, but focused into something resembling an actual human being. Within the realistic tone and environment established by the Brewers, the character comes across as genuinely off-putting and occasionally threatening, which goes a long way toward giving the film a nice balance between tension and humor. As Waters, Wood takes his exasperated, boyish persona to one of its saddest possible conclusions as a depressed, newly divorced stoner who hates his job and doesn’t particularly like or trust his partner. With his puppy-dog eyes and nervous voice, Wood makes an incredibly effective straight-man, his looks of bafflement and anger often eliciting more laughs than Cage’s absurd non-sequiturs. As a pair, they make one long for the days when actors with genuine chemistry would work together for multiple films and build on their established rapport. Given the speed of their respective outputs, it seems like they’d have an easier time than most.

Although its successful as a lean, mean little thriller, The Trust is far from perfect. The balance between humor and dark tension becomes abruptly lopsided in the final act and the characters end up making several decisions that seem more beholden to the plot than plausibility. But anyone with any appreciation for small-scale crime stories or the two leads would do well to give it a look.

www.sabanfilms.com/what-we-do/the-trust

Author rating: 7/10