Trust me, I'm a filmmaker ...

The plots thicken (and fall apart in the third act):

THE ONE I LOVE (B-minus) - More of a game than a movie, "The One I Love" flirts with Charlie Kaufman's head-space to present a puzzler about a struggling couple getting their minds blown on a rural retreat.

Two favorites, Mark Duplass ("Your Sister's Sister") and  Elisabeth Moss ("Mad Men"), star as a husband and wife seeking refuge in couples counseling with a therapist (the always welcome Ted Danson) who suggests a romantic getaway. Ethan and Sophie don't hate each other, but they do grumble a lot, and they figure they're up for anything that might stoke the fires again. What they find at the retreat -- or, more precisely, in the guesthouse on the property -- shocks and intrigues them.

To spell it out would ruin part of the enjoyment of the movie. Let's just say that the interactions they have in the guest house force them to wrestle with their conceptions of each other, for better and for worse.

This is a first feature-length effort by both director Charlie McDowell and writer Justin Lader. McDowell is the son of Mary Steenburgen (with Malcom McDowell, who knew?) and stepson of Danson, so you can see how this project got greenlighted and distributed, despite its weaknesses. While it eventually devolves into a narrative mess, it's frequently engaging; how could it not with such appealing stars?

McDowell doesn't always make it easy to know which dwelling the actors are in, a key to keeping the characters straight; I had trouble adjusting, though my date didn't. A quite promising set-up starts to get tedious about halfway through. A late reveal seems borrowed from a science-fiction TV show, and the final shot lays flat on the screen. We're left with an acting exercise and a writer's clever, but thinly realized, gimmick.

TRUST ME (C+) - Ever since the turn-of-the-millennium TV show "Sports Night," we've been big fans of Clark Gregg. He played the deus ex machina special guest who helped wrap up Aaron Sorkin's two-season masterpiece, and he was one of the highlights of the more recent Joss Whedon adaptation of "Much Ado About Nothing."*

This is his second film as writer/director (in 2008 he adapted Chuck Pahluniak's "Choke" starring Sam Rockwell), and here he offers an original screenplay and stars as Howard, a former child star who now works as an agent to child actors. As a debut project, it shows promise, and Gregg's self-effacing manner and smart dialogue set us up for an entertaining hour and a half. He casts the appealing young Saxon Sharbino (TV's "Touch") as Lydia, the consensus new teen star on the brink of a three-picture deal in a series of vampire films. Gregg and Sharbino have wonderful chemistry, as Howard convinces Lydia and her drunk of a single dad, Ray (a nicely gritty Paul Sparks), to let him seal the deal with the studio.

The first two acts sing, as Gregg creates a convincing universe of Hollywood gamesmanship and the struggles of a 50-something child star ready to finally hit a home run. Sharbino sizzles and the plot thickens, and we're in satisfying indie territory. But then the third act arrives and it all goes off the rails. Gregg loses control and his twists get ridiculous, until his character is sprouting wings, muttering pseudo-philosophical gibberish and looking like he's flying off to heaven.

Gregg ends up wasting a fine cast, including Rockwell hamming it up as a rival (and much more successful) agent. He gathers up a clutch of thin, classy middle-aged actresses: Amanda Peet is his love interest, Molly Shannon is the mother of one of his clients, Allison Janney jerks him around as a midlevel studio soldier, and Felicity Huffman is particularly sharp as the cunning head of the studio. Huffman's husband, William H. Macy (starting to wither into a version of Willie Nelson), shows up for a fun cameo and a mini-reunion of our "Sports Night" gang.

I'll give Gregg the benefit of the doubt. I'll assume that someone at the studio got hold of this and screwed it up. He had a great idea and good intentions, but it fails as a fully realized film.

* - I realize Gregg has been featured in "The Avengers" and a bunch of other superhero movies, and that he's also well known for the breakout TV show "Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D," but I, of course, have never seen any of those titles.