Trust

Rating: Null/10 (10 July 2016)

Knocked unconscious in an automobile accident, a young woman wakes up in an underground bunker and has to determine whether or not her male companions are telling the truth about a nuclear apocalypse above ground in this unsettling thriller starring Mary Elizabeth Winstead. Tension hangs well in the air throughout with John Goodman turning in a fine, deliberately ambiguous performances as the chief captor/rescuer who may or may not have lured another young woman down to the bunker before. The bunker itself is also a magnificent feat of art direction as it often looks more like a comfortable den than a traditional fallout shelter (there is a worthwhile brief documentary on the DVD about the bunker's meticulous construction). While the first hour and a quarter of the film is captivating stuff with eerie sound effects and sporadic power failures, the film runs at least twenty minutes too long with all ambiguity erased near the end. Well filmed as the final few scenes may well be, they lack the energy that the film manages to otherwise drum up from making us question what is really afoot. The concluding scene admittedly has quite a bit to say about the choices we make under stress, but the denouement here is nevertheless underwhelming for a film that, for the most part, preys upon insecurities among strangers and the difficulty of developing trust. Winstead is very good though, and with films like this and 'Faults', she is proving herself to be quite an actress. The majority of the movie also moves very well for a director making his big screen debut.