Shortly after overturning an NC-17 rating for Blue Valentine, the Motion Picture Association’s ratings board rejected an appeal to reverse its decision to give an R-rating to the on-line predator drama Trust. The MPAA gave the film, which is directed by David Schwimmer and stars Clive Owen, Catherine Keener, and Viola Davis, an R rating for “disturbing material involving the rape of a teen, language, sexual content and some violence.” The filmmakers had appealed for a PG-13 rating for the movie, which chronicles a family’s upheaval when the 14-year-old daughter is preyed upon and attacked by an on-line stalker, arguing that more teens should be made aware of the dangers of cyber predators.
Dec 22
2010
08:14 PM ET
MPAA rejects R-rating appeal for on-line predator drama 'Trust'
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An opportunity for art to teach a young teen a life lesson without the real pain and it slips by. In a landscape of mindless, moronic films it won’t matter because they won’t even be able to see the darn thing… Maybe Jackass 3d has a matinee going on.
Not that big of a deal. It’s only rated R, not NC-17. Teens can still see the movie as long as they are with a parent or guardian. So if a parent wants their teens to be aware of these kinds of dangers, they are absolutely able to take them.
True, but how many thirteen-sixteen year olds want to see a movie about rape with their parents? It won’t stop everyone, but it will lose some of it’s audience none the less.
How many teens want to see a movie about rape regardless?
How many teens want to see a movie about rape and on-line stalkers period? I don’t think anyone is less likely to see it that was going to. And while their apeal for a lower rating is marketed with good intentions. I accpect that, like most apeals, the true desire is for larger profit potential.
Terrible news and RunMatch. com was amazing
The MPAA is nothing but a group of Facist Natzis. They are Anti-American and should be abolished!
How is the MPAA anti-American?
I’ve seen the flick and I agree with the R-rating. It wouldn’t be hard for a teen to watch for a parent at all coming from my perspective. The sex scene isn’t showed. How many teens under 17 are going to check this out over some dumb Will Ferrell movie. Parents should bring their child to the film. Each should learn from it.
Part of me thinks the fact that they would have to see it with a parent means, a parent would have to drag them to it, and theirfor more might actuly see it, as so few would go see it by themselves.
How about we give it a whole new ratings class all it’s own. SA for Sucks A**!. Derivative, lame and not worth wasting your time on. Nice of the MPAA to give the movie some free publicity though.
It never had a chance at a PG-13 so why apply for it? Ahh that’s right, free publicity. Get people thinking “Oh my god! A movie about an online predator! Gad zooks and it’s rated R! I better rush to see this one!”.
What’s sad is the number of people who ARE actually thinking that right now.
Have you seen the film? It’s not derivative at all. The trailer makes it look like a standard-issue daddy revenge drama like Taken, yes, but that’s just marketing. The film itself is really smart and nuanced, more about the girl’s loss of trust in her father after he goes haywire from guilt at not being able to protect her. It’s the best thing I saw at the Toronto Film Festival this year. Give it a chance before branding it lame, OK? Also, this film totally doesn’t deserve an R. Stupid backwards MPAA.
This is so true. Pablicity, pablicity, pablicity. No matter how good the film is thats what this is about.
Pablicity. Really?
It’s spelled publicity. LOL
Funny, I would have thought that “pablicity” was a combination of “publicity” and “pablum”. I have my doubts about a rape movie directed by David Schwimmer.
There’s no hyphen in online.
Shoulda cast Miley Cyrus and Zach Efron if they wanted to draw the kids in for one helluva rude awakening
am i wrong in thinkin u yanks dont actually have a legally binding movie age rating system? Isnt the MPAA just a christian parents group that for some unknown reason got more powerful than it should have. Doesn’t their ratings only matter when it comes to cinemas picking up someones movie to run? If its online why the hell is anyone worried about the weirdos at the MPAA which their love for violence and hatred for anything sexual, especially womans sexuality. why? why? WHY i asks ya?
You’re wrong. At least in part. The MPAA is basically a spinoff from the old Production Code, which, while not legally binding, was created to prevent government censorship. The US Supreme Court had determined that movies were a business and therefore not subject to protection under the First Amendment. (Because obviously what Hearst was running at the time wasn’t a business at all!) I don’t know why anyone cares about a rating for an online movie; I didn’t know they had to even bother. However, if the film is going to get a theatrical release, it matters quite a lot. Frankly, the ratings system needs a huge overhaul and everyone knows it, but it’s still better than the Code. The reason Janet Leigh flushes something down the toilet in Psycho is so that there would be a flushing toilet in the movie, showing the cracking of the Code. The guy who ran the office had a thing about toilets. You couldn’t even have a kid wearing a diaper unless they had something on over it.
I saw the original play in Chicago when David was putting it on at the Lookingglass. It’s a stunning piece of work. The R rating may hurt the target audience. It’s by no means a father’s revenge typical piece. It’s about the family and the destruction they feel within themselves and as a unit together. All teenagers should see this movie.
I saw this at TIFF like Mirth, but I agree with you on all counts, Ellen. Also, the character of Annie is so well cast that I was still able to understand why she made the decisions she did, even if they were wrong.
Don’t worry, with the laxity of enforcement of theatre owners on the age restrictions for R movies, any teenager who really wants to see this movie will get to see it.
So true…I wanted to see black hawk down, so a friend of mine and I bought tickets to a show that was on the same side of the theater and around the same starting time. Oceans 11 got two more that day!
I think that in that case, an R rating is probably more appropriate than pg-13
I’m 14 and I wish the rating was lower than R, because I really want to see this movie not to laugh at it or anything but because I like watching movies about people my age and bad stuff happening because it makes me more caution about the subject. So on that mark going to watch movie nooow.