TRUST, the second film by Hal Hartley, stars Hartley mainstays Adrienne Shelly and Martin Donovan with an early role from SOPRANOS and NURSE JACKIE star, Edie Falco. Hal Hartley's site lays out the premise as such:
Maria is a self-centered teenage suburban brat, until she gets pregnant by her un-loving quarterback boyfriend and gives her father a fatal heart attack. Matthew is a rowdy and disillusioned computer engineer with a vicious temper. Disowned by her devastated mom, dumped by her boyfriend, and shunned by her friends, Maria wanders the streets and bumps into Matthew. These two exiles fall in together and set out trying to become a normal, domestic, suburban couple. But these troubled lives evolve in unexpected ways and Maria grows into a responsible person that few conventional notions of “ordinary” can contain.
The film is out of print on VHS and due to Republic Pictures film library now falling under the ownership of Paramount Motion Pictures Group, a division of Viacom and sub division of not giving a shit about this movie, there is no american DVD release. However, you can catch it on Instant Netflix, if you're so inclined. I was lucky enough to end up buying my local video store's VHS copy for just a couple bucks. To this day I'm still in shock as to why they would put out to pasture a copy of a film so rare and so good. One video store's trash another man's treasure, I suppose.
SYNOPSIS:
Does this lipstick make me look like a whore?
The film opens on money dependent Maria putting on some horrendous purple lipstick and getting read the riot act from her folks for dropping out of high school. Puffing on a cigarette, she tells her parents that she's going to be a mommy. All right, she's smoking for two now. Welcome to Long Island, folks. Her dad tries to kick her out of the house for being a tramp, but Maria retaliates with a bitch slap and leaves. Her dad takes the slap pretty hard and proceeds to drop dead. Cue the college radio rock 'n roll, here comes TRUST.
Heart's on the other side, lady.
At the local computer repair warehouse we find the slightly disheveled and highly annoyed Matthew Slaughter. We know this because he pushes over a computer box like it just gave him a dirty look. I like this guy's attitude. Matthew gets to work trudging away at repairing a computer monitor all the while smoking on a cigarette. Immediately, a superior comes over to give him some shit. Matthew tells him to drop dead. I still like this guy's attitude. After some back and forth on the cheapness of the products he's working on, Matthew gives up, shoves his boss' head in a vice -AWESEOME~!- and proceeds to quit, walking off like a bad ass. I really like this guy's style. Matthew Slaughter eats, sleeps and shits "FUCK YOU" attitude.
Not the scene from CASINO.
Back at the local high school, Maria let's her football jock/jerk boyfriend in on the status of his spilled seed. He's not exactly thrilled. His collapse at the idea of potential fatherhood is pretty funny, but he's a scumbag and proceeds to berate and blame Maria for the whole thing. You see, being a father doesn't mesh with his dreams of being a pro football player. So much for a husband pulling in a bitchin' salary. His berating comes close to reaching the standards of a sneering wrestling promo. What a heel.
Grrrrrr! Me boyfriend! Me hate babies! Grrrrrr!
Matthew makes it home, and we find out why this guy is such a surly bastard. It turns out he lives with his wormy dad, who's an even surlier bastard than he is! Not only that but his dad is a whip cracking, neat freak taskmaster that wants the bathroom clean AT ALL TIMES.
Be a man and look me in the beanie.
Matthew breaks the news about his recent unemployment and tastes a mighty backhand. He's bigger than his old man, but he just takes it. His dad belittles him for not being able to move out and make it on his own. Matthew threatens to move out, but the old man laughs it off and demands Matthew to clean the bathroom again.
Clean it like you mean it.
The bathroom is spotless, but Matthew does it anyway. Still it's not good enough for his psycho dad. So he cleans it again. This time accidentally leaving a cigarette on the sink. While his dad puts on a smile and helps out a neighbor, Matthew contemplates a hand grenade that he keeps in his jacket.
Been there.
Meanwhile at the day glow lolita clothing store, Maria thinks about buying some bitchin' tops, but stops short in the dressing room mirror perhaps realizing that the only thing her trashy clothes ever got her was knocked up. Later at the abortion clinic, Maria shares a drink with her local nurse practitioner and laments not realizing that all her boyfriend ever saw in her was her "cunt". Bummer. After having the preconceived notions of her relationship shattered, she acquiesces to not knowing anything in general.
Back at the Slaughter household, Mr. Slaughter finds the cigarette left in the bathroom and goes apeshit, busting into Matthew's room and roughing him up. Matthew calmly takes the beating and the blame. This is not a healthy relationship.
Lou Ferrigno called. He wants his gimmick back.
Maria finally makes it back home to find everyone in mourning. Her mother blames her for the death of her husband and kicks her out. Maria's best friend won't even take her in. Emotionally lost, she takes up a bench in front of a liquor store with another emotionally lost woman, who gives Maria five bucks. They each babble out into space about their problems at the same time, in a way that suggests that they're more talking to the world than to each other. The woman lost her child many years ago and now lives in crummy monotonous marriage. She's clearly going crazy. All the while, some biker broad leaves her baby sitting right next to them as she goes into the store.
Maria heads into the store and tries to cop some beer, but the owner is a creep and tries to blackmail her into giving him some sex or he'll rat her underage buying to the cops. Things almost get rapey, but luckily Maria jams a lit cigarette in the jerks eye and gets away with the beer. Outside the biker broad's baby is now missing, while the crazy housewife is nowhere to be seen.
Magic cigarette trick gone wrong.
Later that night while out walking around, Matthew decides to hold up in an abandoned house and further contemplate his grenade. There he finds Maria much like himself cold, alone and surly. After realizing that he's not out to jump her bones, she asks him for a place to sleep. With his dad out of town, the next day at Matthew's they confide in each other and share their suicidal tendencies. Matthew carries his dad's Korean War grenade around "just in case." They carry on like a married couple already criticizing each others habits.
While Matthew goes to a job interview, Maria sets to take a shower. At the interview Matthew storms into a small repair shop and matter of factly tosses Maria's ex-boyfriend out of his way. He tells the boss that he'll work for him, but won't fix TV's because it's the opium of the masses. Boss man can't work with that because TV's are the majority of his business. So Matthew bails and socks the mouthy counter guy in the gut for good measure - AWESOME~!
Kill your TV.
At home Maria is like a human tornado haphazardly making a mess everywhere, and shit gets real when Mr. Slaughter comes home and finds the house a disaster area. Maria introduces herself as a friend of Matthew's, but he calls bullshit on that because Matthew doesn't have any friends. Sad but true. Matthew arrives just in time to get slapped around some more. Maria can't believe it, and tries to stick up for Matthew, but Mr. Slaughter responds by kicking her out and throwing her wet washed clothes in the spilled muck on the ground - DICK MOVE~! Before leaving Maria puts on a dress she finds in a closet. I pray that Mr. Slaughter is also a cross dresser.
Matthew seeks some refuge in a bar. He again matter of factly punks out Maria's ex and even gut shots the rapey liquor store guy before taking a seat -AWESOME~! The whole bar is in awe of Matthew, as if he's a force of nature. The bartender immediately plays a tape of Matthew's preferred music. Then Maria's newly divorced sister, Peg (Edie Falco), starts giving him some lip. She sees a mountain she'd like to climb, and pins his ornery attitude on his lack of sex life. He almost ups and fucks her just to shut her up. Luckily, Maria shows up. The dress belonged to Matthew's mother. Damn, no cross dressing daddy. Maria doesn't want Matthew to go back to his dad's abuse, so she offers to take him in. He declines, but reconsiders when Maria asks for his support in confronting her mom.
At Maria's her mom is busy pounding some gin. When Maria arrives, with carving knife in hand mommy promises to make Maria's life that of indentured servitude. She also offers to feed her. Maria catches her family up to speed on Mr. Rapey, the missing baby incident and her trip to the abortion clinic. Maria doesn't want to call the cops on the lady because she seemed so sad and mixed up. She also wants to get an abortion, but she has no money and her mom and sister are broke. Matthew offers to pay for it by taking the TV repair job.
It's never too late to abort your 17 year old daughter.
In her room Maria tears all her posters off her wall; thus, abandoning her old lifestyle. She puts her mattress in the guest room for Matthew, who's fixing Peg's TV. Peg tries to get Matthew to watch some TV with her in her room -hint hint- , but Matthew thinks TV gives you cancer. Maria shows Matthew his room, and he's silently flattered by Maria sacrificing her bed for him. He convinces squinty Maria to wear her prescription glasses that she never wears because she doesn't want to look like a librarian, but Matthew likes librarians. They almost kiss, but Maria backs off and asks for Matthew's grenade. She's puts it in her drawer. Downstairs Maria's mother tells Matthew to back off Maria, and that he can only stay for a night. Before Maria goes to bed she writes in a tiny notebook that she's ashamed of being young and stupid.
The next day Maria talks about having kids with Peg and friend. They never thought to plan their teen pregnancies and never thought about what life would have been like if they didn't have babies. They seem content in their vapid motherhood yet also miserable. Hello society.
Now Maria is settling into her new job running a drill press, while Matthew settles into his new job fixing TV's. After work they meet up, and Maria is already over drilling holes and thinking about learning to type. Maria also is trying to hunt down the husband of the woman whom she met on the bench. The woman had mentioned which train he took and his style of dress, so they stake out the train stop, but all the men getting off look the same.
White men. White problems.
At Maria's that night Matthew sticks around much to the chagrin of Maria's mom, who's hellbent on having Maria support her for the rest of her life. The mother's mania is starting to wear on Matthew. Maria gets further evidence from Peg that mindless marriage seeking is a path to nowhere. Then Maria's mom gives Matthew the fifth degree on his relationship with Maria and tries to pimp Peg off to him like she's next best thing since birth control. There's some strange Peg fellatio inuendo with a cigarette. Matthew's not interested. His wide eyed glowering to the mother's creepery is a sight to behold.
Glower power.
After the maternal creepshow, Matthew tries to talk Maria into leaving, but she's two busy trying to figure out how his grenade works. Matthew takes her to school and offers his bed to her, but Maria just wants to become a nun and be numb. Matthew compares numbness to death and asks her if that's really what she wants. Suddenly their thoughts of death subside, perhaps now they have something to live for, each other. They kiss for the first time. Maria asks Matthew to accompany her on her trip to the abortion clinic. Slightly irked Matthew agrees.
You thought there was malt liquor in this?
The next day at the clinic Matthew is all nerves. The fact that some jerk put Maria in this situation is raising his urge to kill. He offers to marry Maria. Crazy talk. Maria tries to calm him down before she heads to the back. After she leaves, a resident abortion daddy stops over to try and relate. This guy breaks it down. To him each abortion gets easier to handle than the last. It's the ultimate problem solver. Nice. Matthew tries to kill him with his bare hands. Maria hears the ruckus and rushes to break it up.
Outside, still pregnant, stopped at visual and metaphorical crossroads, Maria and Matthew mull over getting married and what love means. They settle on trust, admiration and respect equaling love. Maria tests Matthew by falling backwards off a ledge. He catches her. She trusts him. Well, that's one way to fall in love. She wants to do the same thing for him. Matthew doesn't think it's a logistically good idea. He's too heavy, but Maria insists. Matthew declares that he'll only do it if Maria leaves her psycho mom, but before they can settle it they fall back into the hunt for the crazy lady's husband.
Falling in love?
Meanwhile, Maria's mom tries to pimp the idea of banging Matthew to Peg. Devious. At the old computer repair warehouse Matthew tries to get his old job back, so he can take care of Maria and the baby. He promises no more Mr. Mean Guy and ends up with a lower paying position. Mr. Slaughter tries to hunt down Matthew at the TV repair joint, but finds out he's been fired. Maria drills vocabulary words into her head as she operates her drill press. After work she finally finds the crazy lady's husband and swipes his address from his briefcase. She pays back the money his wife gave her back at the liquor store.
Back at the computer warehouse Matthew calls out management for insisting on using faulty parts in their computers. The company wants the computers to eventually fall apart, so people will buy more computers. Fuck you, capitalism! After work Maria tries to tell Matthew about her plans to quit drilling and go back to school, but work has driven Matthew to watching TV and drinking beer just to numb himself. Maria doesn't like Matthew's sudden change in character and wants him to quit the job, but Matthew needs the job so he can help support her and the baby. Dilemma.
While Maria runs off to get groceries, Maria's mom and Matthew get into it. She wants him out, but Matthew and Maria are getting married Monday. Desperate, her mom sets a trap for Matthew by challenging him to a drinking contest. If he loses he'll get out of Maria's life. Confident in his drinking abilities, Matthew agrees. While getting bombed, Matthew reveals that his mother died while giving birth to him. So he killed a parent too. He eventually passes out, and Maria's mom plants him in Peg's room sans clothes. She also leaves her hair clip on the TV. When Peg comes home, she notices that her mother's gin bottle has water in it. The BITCH. When Peg sees Matthew in her bed she tries to put some moves on him, but he's too gone to do anything.
To rape or not to rape? That is the question.
While Maria's out she runs into her abortion clinic nurse friend, and she tells her about all the changes that's been going on in her and Matthew's lives. She doesn't want Matthew to change for the worse because of her, but sometimes you can't help it. She decides that she's going to go through with her abortion. She also runs into her ex meathead boyfriend. He tries to smooth things out with Maria, but when he tries to get physical Maria leaves his cheese in the dust. When she arrives home, Maria's mom tells her to go grab her hair clip from Peg's room. Maria gives her mother no reaction to what she saw. Her mother checks in on Peg and sees her and Matthew passed out together in bed. It looks bad, but nothing happened. Maria showers upset.
The next day Maria goes through with her abortion. Hungover at work, Matthew tries one more time to bring up the issues with the faulty part being included in the companies new product model, but the money grubbing higher ups don't care. So he quits. Maria then confronts the women who stole the baby, but she's already returned it.
Back at Maria's Matthew gets a visit from his old man. He tries to talk Matthew into coming back home, but he's a dick. Mr. Slaughter keeps bad mouthing Maria, and Matthew explodes. They brawl all over Maria's kitchen until a stalemate is reached. Maria's mom and Mr. Slaughter hit it off. When Maria arrives, Matthew tells her that he quit his job, so they can skip town and raise her child away from their crazy parents. He also tells her that he woke up in Peg's bed. Maria lets Matthew know about her abortion and tells him that she doesn't want to get married. Matthew is broken. He gives her a thesaurus and leaves. Maria checks on the grenade. It's missing.
Sadness warshed over the dude.
Maria tries to find Matthew and just follows the sirens to the computer warehouse. Everyone is running for their lives and no one's man enough to go in and try and talk to him. Maria goes in without batting an eye. She finds Matthew with pin pulled. The grenade hasn't gone off... yet? Maria takes the grenade and tosses it. Just when they think they're safe the grenade blows. On the floor in a yin yang looking into each other's eyes, they affirm their feelings for each other - ROMANCE~! The cops then haul off Matthew in a cop car. Both look of at each other as they get dragged further and further apart. Maria puts on her librarian glasses to get one more look at the man that taught her how to see. She stands alone a stronger wiser woman.
Visual metaphor sighting.
REVIEW:
When I first saw Hal Hartley's TRUST, I couldn't help but identify with main character, Matthew Slaughter and his eternal struggle with selling out his principles for a steady job. I was in my early 20's living at home with my mom and step-dad. I was pretty much unemployed and surly having just finished a two show stint working as a production assistant on what I considered to be America's lowest form of entertainment, reality shows. While the people I worked with were nice, both shows were centered around the main participants being lied to just so viewers could take pleasure in watching people be manipulated and not in the PUNK'D sense. I wanted to be a part of the entertainment industry, but I didn't want to be a part of that. But a part of it I was, and disenfranchised I became.
Captain Surly Pants some years before watching TRUST.
Like Slaughter, I was single and alone living with my parents. My last girlfriend cheated on me. All of my old friends had moved to bigger towns. My parents were never oppressive, but I held away in my room just so I wouldn't be a bother to anyone. All I had was film and books. I immersed myself in both, hoping to someday to emerge as a writer/ director - daring to dream. So you can imagine how I felt when I got to meet Matthew Slaughter, the surly, intelligent, moralistic, living at home loner/ bad ass. A new hero was born.
Everything about the film grabs me: the surreal violence, the parents as controlling villains, the connection and affect that both characters have on each other, the story of Maria losing her ignorance is bliss approach to life and entering her own age of enlightenment, the sacrifices Matthew is willing to make just to get Maria out of her living situation. You feel for everybody, and you thank the gods that somebody out there actually made a movie about what it's like to be alone in search of just one person you could relate to.
TRUST is a movie for lovelorn, world weary, tv hating loners that plays like a long satisfying first drag of a cigarette. It's my antidepressant that I'll go to whenever I'm feeling out of step with society, and one of the flicks I tend to show people in the getting to know me process of a relationship. It's the ultimate litmus test. If you get this movie, chances are you'll get me. If you haven't seen it and if any of my ramblings have struck a chord with you, hunt it down. It's cinematic viagra for the soul.
