Trust (2022)

Rarely does a film reach out and grab ahold of you with its authenticity, satire, and meaning -- but that's exactly what 2022's **TRUST** does. But for my links with staff who work for the streaming service Mometu, TRUST might have stayed completely off my radar, languishing, unfairly, in the eternal ether where tens of thousands of direct-to-streaming films reside.

**TRUST** doesn't deserve its obscurity. Not since 2002's **ABOUT SCHMIDT** has a film so perfectly incapsulated the human drama that happens every day in the world -- as families come to grips with death and dying.

Directed by Almog Avidan Antonir, for which he co-wrote with Jennifer Levinson (who stars as the grief-conflicted Kate), TRUST serves as a wake-up call to anyone unprepared to deal with the inevitable.

As the surviving children and their estranged father assemble for the off-the-rails funeral, old grudges quickly bubble to the surface exposing actual trauma and unsettled scores that would give any veteran family counselor anxiety.

With a strong supporting cast -- especially Heston Horwin as middle son whose personal life comes crashing down, Kate Spare as the melodramatic, rapacious sister Trini, and their estranged father Damien, played by Linden Ashby -- the dysfunctional quartet clash throughout the film in destructive and escalating ways.

So often it chances that the untimely death of a family member inadvertently open floodgates of remorse, anger and pain that have long since been held back. Levinson's Kate embodies this with a performance that offers a sympathetic glimpse of broken people trying desperately to hold it all together.

Like a Shakespearean tragedy that incongruously offers comic relief at inopportune moments -- **TRUST** also balances its tragic underpinnings with cathartic bursts of humor, giving audiences oxygen to come up for relief.

This is especially necessary for anyone (like myself) who have experienced handling the awkward chaos of planning funerals, obituaries, final wills and testaments, property, personal effects of the deceased, and other endless minutiae -- all of which will push any bereaved to their breaking point.

I loved this film for its verisimilitude, its unflinching commitment to show how flawed we all are. With exceptional, biting dialogue that cuts to the center in more ways than one, fantastic performances from the main and supporting cast, and edited and filmed together expertly, I wish I had seen TRUST sooner as a point of reference in the personal family tragedies I've experienced since it's release in 2022.

As a cautionary tale, **TRUST** serves as a reminder to do one's best to settle unfinished family business, and -- if all options have failed on that front -- to have the courage to walk away.