Trust the Man (2005)

After much drama, cheating, and trial separations, two men fight to save their respective relationships.

Director:

Bart Freundlich

Writer:

Bart Freundlich

Stars:

David Duchovny, Julianne Moore, Billy Crudup

1 nomination.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
David Duchovny	...	Tom Pollack
Julianne Moore	...	Rebecca Pollack
Sascha Gillen	...	Baby Maggie
Brianna Gillen	...	Baby Maggie
Liam Broggy	...	David
Scott Sowers	...	TerminEx Guy
Billy Crudup	...	Tobey
Maggie Gyllenhaal	...	Elaine
Garry Shandling	...	Dr. Beekman
Sarah Knowlton	...	Elaine's Boss
Brian Tarantina	...	Crazy Hair Driver
Justin Bartha	...	Jasper Bernard
David Greenspan	...	Francis, the Director
Dagmara Dominczyk	...	Pamela
Caroline Schlobohm	...	Shannon

Storyline

New York. Rebecca (Moore), an actress, is crushed to discover that her marriage may be falling apart. Her husband Tom (Duchovny) leaving long-suffering Rebecca to pick up the pieces of their relationship. Rebecca's brother Tobey (Crudup), meanwhile, is in a long-term relationship with Elaine (Gyllenhaal) that has begun to turn sour. Both couples are spoiled and bratty.

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Plot Keywords:

friend | new york city new york | sex scene | theater group | actress | 

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Taglines:

Love is a four-letter word. [Scandinavian DVD.]

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Genres:

Comedy | Drama | Romance

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for language and sexual content

Did You Know?

Trivia

The children of star Julianne Moore and writer/director Bart Freundlich make their movie debuts in "Trust the Man". Caleb Freundlich plays Cosmos, Pamela's son who punches David Duchovny and Liv Freundlich plays Moore's daughter Maggie in the final scenes.

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Goofs

In the scene transitioning to the Christmas holidays, a shot of Central Park is shown with Christo and Jeanne-Claude's The Gates, Central Park, New York City, 1979-2005 in the park. However, this display was unfurled on February 12, 2005 - after the holidays were over.

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Quotes

[first lines]
David: I need help!
Tom: I'll go.

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Connections

References Rebel Without a Cause (1955)

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Soundtracks

Don't Mean You Lost Your Love
Written and performed by Libby Johnson
Wrong Records

User Reviews

Trust The Man

This film seems to seek only to be exactly what it seems to be on first viewing, and manages that superbly. And all this is is just one more 'relationship' movie, showing the problems faced in modern life by 'trendy' couples in New York.

The film portrays two couples living in New York, a brother and sister and their respective partners, who have the typical problems with each other. One couple has Julianne Moore and David Duchovny in a marriage gone stale (unimaginatively shown through the medium of having Moore's character repetitively refuse her husband sex), and the other has Maggie Gyllenhaal desperate to further both her career and relationship with a boyfriend who is terrified to commit, apparently because of a fear of dying.

Not exactly original is it. Throughout the movies I just found it to be simply leaning on the stable stereotypes and ideas of every other film of this genre before it, but with little or no effort to flesh out the characters to an interesting level, something vital in a film of this kind. None of the characters in this piece are interesting, and you just cannot bring yourself to care about them. I really expected more from Duchovny and Moore, who we know can do this sort of thing well if they try, and the only one here who vaguely manages to come out of this well is Gyllenhaal, who somehow manages to work through the material and give Elaine a level of naivety and a hope to improve on her lot to make us root for her.

This is where I felt the movie, like many others like it, missed the point; these characters have problems, they're not happy and their relationships are falling apart but they don't seem to want to bother doing anything about it. In fact 'helping yourself' is actively mocked. Tom and Rebecca go to marriage counselling once a year as a joke to wind up their guidance councillor. When Tom joins a sex addicts group (apparently if you're wife refuses to have sex with you ever, and tells you this to your face, if you still want sex yourself it means you're a sex addict. No one wants sex once you have children! What a freak!) we just get shown an amusing group of weirdos with stupid and amusing fetishes involving power tools.

What this shows to me is just one more love story of how New York (once again shown as a seeming example of the epitome of American society) drains people and makes them miserable and alone. How everyone is miserable, but trying to improve your lot is pointless and laughable, so just get over it and you'll get the inevitable happy ending where both couples get what they wanted from the start, not because they've actually changed or started liking each other, but because we've got the end of the film and need to wrap it up for that cathartic happy ending that the audience wants. The moral: don't bother trying to change your life if it's not working, it'll all work out in the end if you pretend your happy.

Details

Official Sites:

Official site

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

1 September 2006 (USA)

Also Known As:

Trust the Man

Filming Locations:

New York, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$9,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend USA:

$180,271, 20 August 2006

Gross USA:

$1,530,535

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$7,353,118

Company Credits

Production Co:

Sidney Kimmel Entertainment, Major Studio Partners, Process Media

Technical Specs

Runtime:

103 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1