One bizarre tale of internet deception: Andrew Douglas/Mike Walden U WANT ME 2 KILL HIM?

Based on a true-life tale by Judy Bachrach, published in Vanity Fair magazine back in 2005, U WANT ME 2 KILL HIM has been brought to the screen, in 2011, by director Andrew Douglas from a screenplay by Mike Walden. The intervening years have perhaps not been too kind to a story like this -- that depends so much on our former rather than our current and increasingly sophisticated understanding of the internet and its many uses for both good and bad. Consequently, although you may fairly quickly latch on to the suspicion that the movie "hero," a high school student named Mark (well-portrayed by Jamie Blackley), is being "played," you'll probably want to stick around to learn exactly who is playing him -- and why. (Craig Lucas did all this -- and better -- a few years earlier in The Dying Gaul.)

Director Douglas (at left) keeps a relatively firm hand on the proceedings, taking us back & forth between characters -- some real and some not so -- beginning at pretty much the end and circling back and then further forward until the mystery is solved. The screenplay by Mr. Walden is certainly adequate and the dialog good enough to keep us watching and wondering. The picture the movie paints of modern-day Britain is ugly enough to seem real and then some: a society where narcis-sism runs rampant in adults and their children.

In one of the first scenes in the film, Mark (above) and his maybe girlfriend have just finished having sex when her other boyfriend, an older man, arrives. For sport, the girl screams and then pretends to have been assaulted by Mark, who must run for his life from the other older and stronger fellow. Some friend she is!

But that's OK because Mark himself has a real girlfriend online: a poor but pretty blond named Rachel whose family is in a witness protection program. Rachel, who happens to have her own abusive boyfriend, convinces Mark to look after her brother, John (a nice job by Toby Regbo, above), a classmate of Mark's who is constantly bullied and abused by other classmates. Mark says sure, and a new friendship is born.

Pretty soon everyone including MI-5 gets involved in all this, and poor Mark is up to his ears in complications and would-be heroism. A horrendous stabbing occurs, lots of blood is shed, a pretty blond police lieutenant (Downton Abbey's Joanne Froggart, above) comes on the scene and tries her hand at solving the mystery of "why."

If you've lasted this long, you'll probably stick with the movie. As many of these internet seduction films as I've already seen, I think I can safely predict that this one's different. If you didn't read the original Vanity Fair article, then honey -- you ain't seen nuttin' yet.

U Want Me 2 Kill Him? -- supposedly from Tribeca Films, but if you can find the film on Tribeca's website, you're more proficient than I -- opens in Los Angeles today, Friday, March 14, at Laemmle's NoHo 7, and according my sources, it will not be opening here in NYC. But maybe there will be a DVD eventually. Meanwhile, the film is also available on VOD nationwide, so home viewing, at least, should be no problem.

On DVD: David Schwimmer's TRUST is worth seeing despite its surprising flaws

Among his other credits for acting, directing and producing, ex-Friend David Schwimmer, directed one of the funniest, darkest and most insightful of high-school reunion movies, Since You've Been Gone back in 1998. Since then he has directed for TV and cable, given us the so-so theatrical release,  Run, Fatboy, Run, and now he's back with an unusual and semi-dark drama called TRUST, about a teenage girl and the online relation-ship in which she becomes involved, what happens because of this, and how she, her family and friends react to it all.

This proves very tricky territory, but Schwimmer (at left), his writers (Andy Bellin and Robert Festinger) and his cast negotiate much of it quite well -- showing us how this relationship grows, what it means to the young girl (a standout performance from relative newcomer Liana Liberato, below and further below), and how the importance of the film's title plays into the innocence of our heroine, allowing her to be taken advantage of in grueling ways that do not immediately become apparent to her, those around her -- or to us.

Trust is, first of all, a family movie -- a movie about family, though not necessarily one that you'd want the entire family to see. Although, I think it might be wise to have any family member old enough to be using the computer and the internet view the film, so long as family discussion between the adults and the kids follows the viewing.

There will be plenty of pros and cons about the behavior of the parents, as well as that of the girl, Annie, and why she acts as she does -- both before and after the central event that the movie posits. Thanks to the skills of writers, director and actress, this works surprisingly well, keeping us ever in the mind and the heart of Annie.

What works less well are mom and dad -- as played by the usually fine Catherine Keener (below, center, and wasted here in a fairly rote role) and the always sturdy/studly Clive Owen, above, who is given the kind of near-ridiculous behavior to portray that no amount of "acting" can surmount. Coming from a fellow who initially appears to love his daughter, his conduct is simply a no-go -- making the film's feel-good finale faintly annoying, rather than the moving moment for which the filmmakers clearly hoped.

Besides the wonderful Ms Liberato, the film's other "ace" is to be found in the creation of the character of Charlie (which is imagined nearly as well as that of Annie) and the performance of Chris Henry Coffey in the role (he is shown below, with Ms Liberato). We only see Charlie in two scenes in the film, but both are pivotal, and the final one is quietly and doubly revealing.

I wish Trust were a better film, but it is still an important one -- with a message for kids and families that really needs to be seen/heard. It's available now on DVD for sale or rental.