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Trust

If there's a truly must-see film for all parents and children who are about 10 and older, this is it. I stumbled upon "Trust," directed by David Schwimmer, at our library the other day and barely blinked through this story of a good family that is devastated by their 14-year old daughter falling prey to an online pedophile.

Please have a look at the trailer here:

What follows are excerpts from Roger Ebert's review of "Trust":

"It tells its story of a 14-year-old girl and a predatory pedophile as a series of repercussions in which rape is only the first, and possibly not the worst, tragedy to strike its naive and vulnerable victim."

"At its core is a remarkable performance by young Liana Liberato, who plays Annie Cameron, the happy child of a good home in upper-crust Wilmette. We hear a lot about the premature sexualization of young teens; she portrays a "good girl" who isn’t advanced, who feels uncomfortable at a party where "popular girls" fake sophistication. She’s ... a nice kid."

"She’s never had a boyfriend when she meets Charlie in an online chat room. Charlie is in high school. Like her, he plays volleyball. He’s a nice kid, too. He understands her. She grows closer to Charlie than any boy she’s ever known. They talk for hours on the phone."

"Charlie makes a confession. Actually, he’s in college. Actually, he’s a graduate student. Actually, he’s 25. "Why do you keep lying?" she asks. But Charlie is comforting and persuasive. She agrees to meet him in a mall."

"She must have been warned about cases of online predators like him — but they couldn’t have been talking about her Charlie. Yet when Charlie turns up, he’s clearly well into his 30s. Annie is crushed. But he is persuasive and compelling, a smooth talker, pushing all the right buttons, exploiting her idealized fantasies about himself."

"For Annie, the loss of her virginity is not the worst of it. More important is her reputation, her world in New Trier High School, her self-esteem. She might almost have been better off not telling anyone what happened. She confides in a friend, who blabs to the school principal, and she’s led away from school by two uniformed officers who come to investigate the crime. In this and countless details for the rest of the film, we realize a psychic rape is being added to the original one. Only a reserved but tactful psychiatrist (Viola Davis) completely understands what is happening."

"Annie’s parents are good people. Her British father Will (Clive Owen) is a marketing executive — ironically, catering to the market for sexy teen fashions exploited by the notorious American Apparel retail chain. Her mother Lynn (Catherine Keener) is sensible and loving. The marriage is healthy. What Annie desperately needs is privacy and space. What she gets is an intrusive FBI investigation, brutal gossip at high school, cruel jokes played on the Internet, and the destruction of the idealized vision of Charlie she clings to."

"It is all too tortuous and complicated. Liana Liberato does such a poignant job of showing how, and why. She has three scenes in particular where her wounded feelings spill out in words of anguish, and they are so well-written and well-acted that they’re heartbreaking. David Schwimmer has made one of the year’s best films: Powerfully emotional, yes, but also very perceptive."

To read Roger Ebert's full review, click here:

Roger Ebert's Review of "Trust"

More Reviews of "Trust" at Amazon.com

Many thanks to David Schwimmer and his collaborators for creating this film and for their ongoing efforts to oppose the sexualizing of young girls in popular culture.

 
 

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Comments

Parents with teen girls definitely need to pay more attention to them and getting them into matial arts is also a really good idea! Because I know way too many girls (including myself and my sister) that have been taken advantage of more than once and nothing was done about it.

I knew a few girls that got into similar situations when I was in high school and not even the police bothered to investigate the situations after being told about it, it is ridiculously unrealistic to believe that the FBI would get involved.

These days, I believe each and every child, no matter what their sex needs to be taught the dangers of the internet. There will always be creeps out there that prey on the innocent, that's why it is imperative parents tell their children bluntly what can happen and don't "protect them" from the truth. Mine are 18 and 16 now and I still have to get on to them about the content they post on Facebook which they don't understand the possible repercussions of, and to not accept friends on there of people they don't even know. I find it ironic that in a world that has more people living on it than ever in history, we have such lonely people that look to chat rooms to find friendships and attention. Our technological age has taken a lot of the camraderie out of our lives and we live through screens and texting devices. I personally hate it, but then again, I'm old school at the ripe old age of 46. I watched my kids interact at my family reunion this weekend where we played lots of games, swam, told old stories and ate lots of potlucks around a campfire....they had true joy in their faces and they were amazed at how much fun it was to interact with others. I forsee this becoming a serious problem as the generations go by.

Our culture is very ill-informed about the sexuality of children. Read Margaret Mead for some scientific field work.
But that is not the problem that needs to be addressed here. To my mind, this culture is sexually obsessed, and perverted. This is throughout the spectrum from pornography (incredibly demeaning, and boring), to the preachers who dwell on it constantly (and then get caught).
Advertising sexualizes children as adult sex objects, pop entertainment likewise. Meanwhile virtual "witch-hunts" make life a living hell for innocent fathers, divorced by hate-filled wives; as well as many adults trying to help the child-victims of our perversion.
The culture creates, advocates, and manipulates perversion for profit, then persecutes the psychologically weak, and socially vulnerable.
Those who exploit children for profit in the mass media are the ones deserving severe prosecution, rather than millions of dollars. But if the culture weren't so ill, they wouldn't have an audience.
We speak of how children are our most important resource. Consider our treatment of our other resources!

Since when has sex become so taboo and perverted? Sex is the most natural and can be the most beautiful thing of the human body. I don't understand when everyone has tried to get a "Puritan" view on things and jokes on everybody because the majority of Puritans were pregnant while getting married.

Sex is a natural thing. There's no reason to freak out about it. You can discuss with your children on when you first had sex, and then what you expect of them.. but if everyone is going to have this cookie-cutter view to them about sex, and not communicate with kids, guess what? Your kids are going to be taught at school about sex, and want to experiment. WHY? Because Kids and teenagers have a natural curiosity to their body and everything it can do. We've all been teenagers, it hasn't changed one bit. The best thing to do is be open and honest, prepare them, and tell them what you expect. Don't say "Wait until marriage", set realistic goals.

I understand the whole "if it's not broke, don't fix it", and some parents want to raise their kids how their parents raised them to be, but it doesn't work because society and the way it's effected to technology is always going to be different.. the best thing anyone can do is educate and prepare.