With Jimi Petulla, who also wrote the screenplay and produced the film, Trust in love is currently running a cinema roadshow in addition to a VOD release.
Directed by Mick Davis, the film tells a dual story: It is about Mickey (Petulla), a record producer who discovers that his perfect marriage is not so great after all.
It is also about his son Cody (Logan Arditty), who struggles with his own identity and his artistic flair.
Whether it is a family drama, a queer affirmation story or a disgusting comedy is unclear, but Petulla’s film, a semi-autobiographical work, is definitely worth seeing.
Mickey is the kind of music supremo who still has the hair and attitude from half a century ago. He’s thrilled to have a member of The Doors in his recording studio, but dismisses modern beats as “noise.”
He also lives a life as if he were single, neglecting his younger wife Sofia (Natasha Wilson) and their teenage children in favor of the lure of a production office.
Cody, on the other hand, dreams about a classmate and draws pictures of her. He has conflicts with his own sexuality while dealing with his mother’s affair and his father’s strange attraction to outsiders, particularly a friendly drag queen.
Uncle Bobby (Tim Hazelip) is a surfer dude, dreadlocks and all, while Sofia and her mindless ladies who eat lunch with friends are drawn as superficially as possible. Women are expendable in this industry.
While on the surface this sounds like a mix of several Hallmark movies, it actually paints a quirky picture of a Malibu family torn apart by the dollar and the inevitable boredom that comes with being able to have it all.
I really enjoyed Arditty’s portrayal of Cody, even though his character development is fairly predictable and leads to a resolution where most of the loose ends are resolved by the end of the credits.
What is missing, however, is any sense of sibling support between Cody and Jennifer (Sydney Bullock). We get to see one positive scene between the reserved son and the tolerant father.
Maybe as Trust in love is Mickey’s story rather than Cody’s—although the narration initially comes from the Sun—we never see the daughter’s perspective, except in one scene about “keeping your cool.”
Sofia cries a lot and seems to be easily influenced. Hazelip, the beach bum character, has a much broader view of family life.
The cameos are fun. We know to expect blinks and we miss a bit of the older Roddy Krieger, but the quirky therapist fits well with an off-the-roster Eric Roberts.
His inclusion adds an additional strangeness to the proceedings, as his strange collection of clients in group therapy are masked to conceal their identities.
This is a film with ambition but without the courage to follow through with the plot.
We get a glimpse of Petulla’s anger at his own situation, but what happened before the woman found the catalyst that made her say enough was enough? Why is it important for the new band to harmonize with old hands?
I would have either expanded the individual scenes with the various lawyers or cut them all together, while Miljenko Matijevic has the potential to develop as Emerson, an old rocker who has trouble adjusting.
More information about Trust in lovevisit the film’s website.
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