Saturday, January 8, 2011

Love & Distrust: Movie Review



Too much star power, too little meaning.

"Love & Distrust" suffers from a problem that most independent films would love to have — too much star power. Starring Robert Pattinson, Sam Worthington, James Franco, Amy Adams and Robert Downey, Jr, people seem to be expecting a cross of "Twilight" meets "Avatar" meets "Spider-Man" meets "Enchanted" meets "Iron Man". Expectations are way out of whack. A film with that kind of mix would be even worse than "Love & Distrust". 2010

Directed by: Lorraine Bracco, Daisy Gili, Eric Kmetz, Warner Loughlin, Diana Valentine and Darcy Yuille

Starring: Robert Pattinson, James Franco and Amy Adams

What "Love & Distrust" really is, is a compilation of 5 unrelated short films in the vein of something like "Coffee and Cigarettes" (2003). The vignettes have nothing in common except that they are all supposed to show the various elements associated with love, like: obsession, mistrust, and seduction. The second major problem of the film is that the 15-minute vignettes are drawn out with short-lived characters and obtuse lessons on love.

"Love & Distrust" may be slow, boring and arguably meaningless, and I probably know more about love than its stars. But it's a conceptual look at the variations of love and trust that hasn't been explored in quite this way and I appreciate their attempt at least.



Similar Titles:


Blue Valentine (2010) - "Blue Valentine" is tragically real, beautiful, and blue.


Like Crazy (2011) - A story of love, depending on what love really is.

Remember Me (2010) - Emotional romantic drama for the mature teenage market.