DVD Review: Clark Gregg's 'Trust Me' with Amanda Peet, Felicity Huffman & Allison Janney

Hollywood is a rotten place, especially for child stars. If they don’t have the right agent, their lives could quickly spiral out of control. Howard, the struggling agent played by Marvel star Clark Gregg in his directing effort, Trust Me, is trying his best, but usually fails.

Howard is a former child star himself who was robbed of a chance at superstardom. When he discovers Lydia (Saxon Sharbino in her first movie role), he tries to take her under his wing and get her a gig for a franchise Vampire movie directed by Ang Lee. However, he runs into a few stumbling blocks, including her father (Paul Sparks) and his rival (Sam Rockwell). He also tries to get Lydia the best deal possible in his negotiations with the film’s producer, Agnes (Felicity Huffman).

There’s a lesson in the film, that you shouldn’t let your trust in someone blind you, but it moves so quickly that it doesn’t really feel like Gregg’s script is trying to be pedantic. But overall, the 80-minute film (minus credit time) is a bit jumbled. You get the sense that many actors get scenes just because they wanted a cameo. (Really, William H. Macy, did you have to take that walk-on role as a car salesman?) It really feels like Gregg needed another 10 minutes to really flesh out his ideas and he didn’t take the chance.

One star Gregg does give a lot of screentime to is Saxon Sharbino, who could be a great star in the future. Gregg gets a great performance out of her and you couldn’t really tell that this is her first movie. Amanda Peet also gets a great part as Gregg’s neighbor and the woman he’s falling in love with. It makes you wish that Peet got bigger roles more often.

Gregg himself is very loveable in the part of Howard. For anyone who only knows of his work as Agent Coulson in the Marvel movies, his performance here will probably be a revelation.

So, Trust Me’s main problem is that it actually moves too fast and has underdeveloped ideas. But the acting makes the film so enjoyable that you might forget its shortcomings.

Trust Me was released by Starz and Anchor Bay on DVD only, with no bonus materials at all. A commentary from Gregg would have been nice. So, I’d recommend renting it or waiting for it to become available to stream.