An all-star quartet engages in 'Trust'

It is hard to find a more engaging quartet of unlikable characters than the ones created by Zach Braff, Sutton Foster, Bobby Cannavale and Ari Graynor - the high-powered cast of "Trust."

Paul Weitz's uneven but appealing psychosexual cartoon-comedy, directed with a light touch of darkness by the excellent Peter DuBois, asks this inexactly universal question: Why is it that neither great wealth, a big brain, artistic ability nor a killer way with an S&M bullwhip can make people happy?

This is the most confident play yet by Weitz, whose theater work has rightly suffered in comparison with his movies (with brother Chris), including the sensitive "About a Boy" and the impolitely iconic "American Pie."

"Trust" loses its joyous flair for joylessness in the second act, when the brutal comic interactions reveal an awfully squishy-soft, sentimental center. Until then, however, the offbeat charms mingle unpredictably with mercilessly rude dialogue and extremely convincing erotic pawing. Too bad Weitz forgets where he started.

Braff - all sad-sack face and sharp timing - is lovely as Harry, who made hundreds of millions in an Internet startup but lost his ethical center and his verve. He experiments with an S&M session, where the sizzling dominatrix (yes, Foster, the perky musical diva last seen as Fiona in "Shrek") turns out to be a girl he knew in high school as Prudence.

She, in contrast, is oppressed at home by her charismatically hotheaded boyfriend (Cannavale), a proud underachiever from Mensa. Meanwhile, Harry's catatonically depressed but wealthy wife (Graynor) misses the good guy she married poor and "the thrill of maxing out my credit card."

The issue is less trust than control. Prudence - with her thigh-high shiny boots and a cart of assorted manacles - believes her profession to be a branch of psychology. Too soon, Weitz is putting psychobabble into the mouths of his adrift characters, whose sincere searches for happiness betray the messy, airy looniness of their original plights.

But Alexander Dodge's tile-lined set is witty and slick, Emilio Sosa's costumes understand how clothes can be destiny. I wish the second act of "Trust" had more trust in the audacity of its first half. The thing doesn't go anywhere interesting, but it's an entertaining way to go.

WHAT "Trust"

WHERE Second Stage Theatre, 305 W. 43rd St.

INFO $70; 212-246-4422; 2st.com

BOTTOM LINE Powerhouse cast in entertaining but uneven journey