By Don’t trust anything you see on the internet, especially when it comes to love and dating. My generation of mid-20somethings know a thing or two about the dangers of profile pictures and the right angles. A few films have captured the risk/reward dichotomy that online dalliances offer (Catfish and You Got Mail, for example).
Trust follows in the line of films detailing the lack of correlation between internet activity and trust.
Trust
Director: Alan Mulligan
Rating: N/A
Country: Ireland
Ally (Sarah Carroll) logs into a dating website to find a man for some late-night fun. However, the man she chooses, Richard (Richard Wall), is a married man. Or perhaps this was all part of her plan? While at first reluctant and hesitant at the prospect of a discreet, casual encounter, Richard relents. Of course, nothing is ever as easy as it seems online.
Trust takes a minor twist to create more drama in its plot, but it feels kind of uninspired. Ally, wracked by the memories of a failed relationship, is driven to prey on Richard (and others, it’s implied) because of this sense of revenge. Though thin and one-dimensional, this exposition helps to at least shape Ally’s character, which is more than what can be said about Richard.
By all accounts, Richard seems to have just been caught in a web of sex and shenanigans. Really, outside of his general hesitance to comply with Ally’s sexual advances, there isn’t much to say about who he is as a character. However, given that Trust is a short film, that’s not especially needed. In any other format, Trust wouldn’t be as interesting.
The film is stripped down to the basics of plot, antagonist/protagonist conflict, and fine cinematography. As I’ve said in the past, the best short films are well-written and full of nuance, where every single sentence/frame is important. Trust is simple, sure, but writer/director Alan Mulligan looks to be on the right track for any future projects he’ll head.