Trust (2 1/2 Stars)

Clive Owen and Catherine Keener in Trust

Relentless in its diagrammatic A-to-B-to-C progression, director David Schwimmer's "Trust" had an unusual genesis, premiering at Chicago's Lookingglass Theatre Company last spring at the same time Schwimmer was editing the play's film version.

The live theater experience allows actors the chance to carve away a script's contrivances and concentrate on the human element -- in this case, a squirm-inducing story of the seduction, criminal sexual assault and traumatic recovery of a 14-year-old New Trier Township High School student who runs afoul of an online predator.

On screen it's different, and tougher.

The number of creative decisions and matters of framing, lighting, design, etc., multiply, and even with fine, fierce actors the clunkiness of their vehicle is hard to overcome. "Trust" is conventionally written and directed. He's adept with actors, but Schwimmer has yet to locate his strengths behind the camera. Yet his film deserves some attention for the remarkable performance from Liana Liberato as Annie. The casting is age-appropriate (Liberato was 14 during filming in Ann Arbor, Mich., substituting for Chicago and environs) and Liberato makes each squirmy, painful development dramatic, as opposed to melodramatic.

"Trust" is very after-school-special in its theme and vibe, and simply using that reference point marks me as a member of a generation struggling to comprehend how contemporary teens' online lives are so radically different from a mid- or late-20th century adolescence. Annie meets Charlie in a chat room. Charlie, from California, is 16 and, like Annie, a volleyball player. He is also a liar. Soon he confesses in the chat room that he's really a college student at UC-Berkeley. Then he tells her this, too, is a lie. Her better instincts blurred by a combination of fear and desire, Annie nonetheless agrees to a face-to-face meeting at the local mall, where she learns she's been dealing with someone other than the Charlie she thought she knew.

Clive Owen and Catherine Keener play the parents; Viola Davis is the school therapist; the predator, a grinning sack of dung portrayed by Chris Henry Coffey, comes off as miserably plausible in his strategies and manipulations. As the FBI struggles for leads in the hunt for the predator, the father -- the de facto protagonist, though the film invariably loses focus whenever Liberato is off-camera -- flirts with vigilante justice while his marriage corrodes from the inside, and his daughter recedes into her newly hardened shell.

To the writers' credit, the resolution offers some hope without falsifying the emotions of the girl at its center. Schwimmer and his writers are after a depiction of a relentlessly sexualized culture (Dad works on a salacious American Apparel-style clothing ad campaign) and the roiling pressures on teenagers to fling themselves headlong into adulthood. Throw in the paradoxical intimacy and anonymity of our online lives, and "Trust" takes on a great deal, albeit too neatly. Liberato's a genuine actress, however, with considerable emotional resources.

MPAA rating: R (for disturbing material involving the rape of a teen, language, sexual content, and some violence).

Running time: 1:46.

Cast: Clive Owen (Will); Catherine Keener (Lynn); Liana Liberato (Annie); Jason Clarke (FBI Agent Tate); Viola Davis (Gail); Noah Emmerich (Al); Chris Henry Coffey (Charlie).

Credits: Directed by David Schwimmer; written by Andy Bellin and Robert Festinger; produced by Tom Hodges, Ed Cathell III, Dana Golomb, David Schwimmer, Robert Greenhut and Heidi Jo Markel. A Millennium Entertainment release.

Trust Movie Review - Clive Owen and Catherine Keener