'Sword of Trust'

Some people will believe anything, and there are always people ready to take advantage of those people — which a depressingly timely message for director Lynn Shelton to tuck into the semi-improvised comedy “Sword of Trust.”

Cynthia (Jillian Bell) and Mary (Michaela Watkins) are a loving couple who have ventured down to Birmingham, Ala., to tie up the affairs of Cynthia’s recently deceased grandpappy. The old man’s house belongs to the bank, because of a reverse mortgage to cover his medical bills, but he did leave Cynthia with a family heirloom: A Union officer’s sword from the 1860s, some documents, and a rambling letter explaining that the sword is proof that the South really won the Civil War.

Cynthia and Mary decide to sell the sword, and take it to a pawn shop owned by Mel (Marc Maron), a jaded New Mexico transplant who spends most of the store’s hours berating his slightly dim employee, Nathaniel (Jon Bass). Mel offers $400 cash for the sword, which the ladies turn down.

After doing some research online, Mel discovers a bottomless pit of conspiracy theorists who actually believe the South won the Civil War. What’s more, they’ll pay a ton of money for any physical evidence to support that bogus claim. Soon, Mel and Nathaniel are partnering with Cynthia and Mary to broker a bigger deal for the sword.

Shelton is a pro at this kind of conversation-driven comedy; look at “Humpday” and “Your Sister’s Sister” as past examples. Here, the script she and Mike O’Brien (formerly of “Saturday Night Live”) have written is a framework for the actors to improvise — and with comic talents like Maron, Bell and Watkins (another “SNL” alum) at work, that dialogue is loose, funny and sometimes touching.

Shelton’s ace-in-the-hole is Maron, who invests plenty of pathos in Mel’s backstory — a drug-addicted past, and a damaged ex-girlfriend, played by Shelton herself — for a performance that’s wry, sardonic and quietly heartbreaking. Within the comic grace notes of “Sword of Trust,” it’s Maron who cuts the deepest.

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‘Sword of Trust’

★★★1/2

Opened July 19 in select cities; opens Friday, July 26, at the Broadway Centre Cinemas (Salt Lake City). Rated R for language throughout. Running time: 89 minutes.