Very disappointing...

To me, this movie is perfection.

Tells a fascinating and unsettling true story, and does so well, without pretending to have all the answers.

Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

20+ years after I first saw it, this remains one of my favorite films of all time. Hal Hartley's second feature is built around the same deliciously weird sense of humor as his debut "The Unbelievable Truth" -- even if the balance here tilts a bit more toward (melo)drama than comedy. Hartley has been known to explain that he felt almost as though he put Adrienne Shelly's character on a pedestal in that first film, and wanted to explore the darker implications of that.Shelly herself (RIP) is even better this time around, and in place of Robert Burke, we now get Martin Donovan as one of the more intense, flawed, and ultimately lovable romantic leads you'll ever see on film. (I almost put quotes around "romantic," because this is not really a love story in the traditional "does the guy get the girl" sense. It's more interesting than that.) Donovan would go on to appear in five additional Hartley films, even playing Jesus Christ in the terrific featurette "The Book of Life," but none of those roles is more iconic than this one.Between the characters and the dialogue, Hartley and his cast created something here that is wonderfully unique, humorous, and poignant. Think _Sex, Lies and Videotape_, sort of: while the writer-directors have different voices, there's that same sense of careful economy, and of wondering whether these two messed-up people are ever going to get their acts together -- and cheering them on either way.

Most popular films delineate their stories in a rather comical and insipid way: the dialogue is often exchanged between characters as if it were bounced off a Spartan gladiator - and, in some cases very little to short-of-nothing is penetrable in the film."Trust" is a film that inverses that idea - and does so with wit, charm, and most importantly: astute cleverness. The story begins with careful sequencing that portrays each character a new journey of life. We see an antisocial protagonist, a pregnant girl who recently dropped out of high school, and a motherly type whose apathy is cunning and partially insane. "Trust" is a love story that defies any cliché of filmmaking. The lead character pours his organism into the film and invokes integrity of personality without apprehension or any constipation (who can forget that wit from Mr Slaughter??) The film is about what happens when we take chances, and don't take chances. In short: it's about being and what happens when we share our being with others.The film's sequencing is what I loved most of all. It's weaved into a fabric that reminded me of early avant-garde films (the envelope of the story is reminiscent of Kubricks's older film "The Killing") and perhaps more-or-less surprising is the protagonist(played by Martin Donovan) exchanges silence; those rare moments in the film that can't help to be compared to the work of Godard. Momentarily, it shines solicitude and violence (the symbolism is slightly ironic and very insincere.) My favorite moments are about jeering characters who feel unwanted.A definite must-watch. I recommend it to anyone, everyone.

Long Island filmmaker Hal Hartley fights the sophomore jinx in the follow-up to his disarming debut feature 'The Unbelievable Truth' (1989). His second film is an overwritten satire drawn around the usual clichés of modern suburban culture (television, dysfunctional families, etc.) and filtered through the director's trademark cast of quirky characters, none of whom resemble anyone raised in a genuine suburb. It lacks the offbeat appeal of his earlier effort, presenting a darker, more emotionally violent story about a pregnant high school dropout and her unlikely friendship with an alienated electronics whiz-kid, who carries a hand grenade "just in case". The odd, choreographed rhythm of Hartley's dialogue is still enjoyable, but this time his characters have nothing amusing to say, and the impression is left of a gifted talent trying too hard to overcome a creative block.

It was toss-up between what film will represent the early nineties style of independent films that I like – Trust could easily be replaced with Chasing Amy, Swingers, Metropolitan, Dazed and Confused or even Scream but I chose this Hal Hartley flick because I think it is the most profound in exploring the relationships we have with our partners, our family and the people in our immediate environment as well as having the most charming minimalist style to express those thoughts. A lot of the film is pretty much shot with talking heads but the execution works well because of the deadpan while nuance performances of a cast who remain very appealing and likable regardless of the dark twists and turns the story takes. Trust is probably the only Hal Hartley film you can guarantee finding at JB Hifi in Australia at any time and I definitely recommend it as an impulse purchase.