No.191 : The Trust (2016)

The Trust at the IMDb

This is one of five films made by Nicholas Cage in 2016, so you know it has to be good, what with all that practice. ‘The Trust’ is probably best known as the final film of Jerry Lewis, but he has barely a minute on screen.

The film opens with two Las Vegas policemen starting their day. Cage’s Jim is meticulous and organised whereas his friend David (Froddo) is having sex with a hooker and smoking drugs. The pair work at the evidence locker and plan ways of making a big score to get out.

Cage is disrespected by his corrupt seniors who want the best pickings from the evidence locker from themselves. He has a look over a drug dealer’s car and sees that his $200k bail was paid by cash. He thinks that the dealer works for a rich operation and decides to go undercover, on his own time as a hotel waiter, so he can follow his target’s activities.

Woods meanwhile stakes out the target’s apartment and they discover that goods go in but none come out. They also find a large safe in the plans for the building and make plans to rob it. There is a bit of planning and a reveal that Cage may not be as nice as he seems at first.

The robbery goes poorly from the off as the occupants in the flat above aren’t immediately agreeable to being the base for the drilling operation, with one chap getting shot and the lady being chained up. The plan to burrow into the safe goes well, despite an issue with the drill, and soon they are in the vault which holds a lot more than anticipated. Wood gets cold feet and starts to worry about what Cage has planned for him. Cage starts to display his trademark mania and we just know that both are not going to get clean away.

This was a decent, workmanlike heist movie that tapered off towards the end. I quite liked the planning stages and Ethan Suplee’s Russian roulette loving policeman. I liked that when they went for plans or when they ordered the drill that they were immediate thought to be crooked, despite their elaborate cover story.

The heist was less good with it starting wordlessly like ‘Riffifi’ and being overlaid by some Grieg. This couldn’t last however and it quickly spiralled down to a lot of shouting and double crosses. The twist at the end was well handled with the moment of realisation being a solid ‘Ahhh’ realisation as it all became apparent.

The characters weren’t overly deep, with their motivations not being clear - since when was too much money been an issue with a robbery? Just take a wee bit of the loot if it bothers you!

The two leads gelled well at first, but like the plot they kind of lost their way at the end. Wood’s empathy for the hostage wasn’t borne out by what had gone before and his behaviour towards Cage just smacked of ‘this will surprise them’.

I do always like a robbery film, especially when the safe door cracks open. In this case however, it was when the money arrived that things fell apart. A decent if uneven effort.

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