Trust Me: Skip Trust the Man

So, I see a movie with both Julianne Moore and David Duchovny, and I think, "Hmm, this should be good." However, in the case of Trust the Man (2006), there is nothing good in this tired, romantic comedy wannabe. Moore's husband, Bart Freundlich wrote and directed this New York-based story of two couples trying to figure out why they are together in the first place.

Trust the Man centers on Moore, who plays Rebecca, an actress in New York City. Rebecca is married to Tom (Duchovny), a stay at home father of two, and a sex addict, who is unsatisfied with how much sex Rebecca is willing to give him. Then there is Rebecca's younger brother, Tobey, played by Billy Crudup (Almost Famous). Tobey has been dating an aspiring children's author, Elaine, portrayed by Maggie Gyllenhaal (World Trade Center). Elaine wants to get married and start having kids, which is something that Tobey just doesn't want to talk about.

Oh, wait, I forgot to mention that Tom and Tobey are best friends, and conveniently enough, so are Rebecca and Elaine. So the movie has lots of restaurant scenes in which the foursome spend most of their time. When they are not all together, they are coupled off, either in the romantic sense or the friendship sense. Either way, they are always talking about sex, and defecating. I am not sure why the dialogue centers on the two topics, but I think that the writer slash director thinks that if he puts enough of these topics in the film, it will make it funny. It doesn't.

Trust the Man is one of the most boring films I have watched in quite some time, and I review films for a couple of websites, so I see my share of stinkers. The main problem with Trust the Man is that there is not one character with whom the viewer can identify or even come to care about. When both relationships fall on hard times, you really don't know why you should care about either the women or the men. All characters fit that whiny, self-absorbed New York artist type that Woody Allen has made a living off of, but in the this case, there is not a lick of wit to be found. Even in Allen's worst films, you can at least find some redeemable quality. Not so in Trust the Man.

The script is a mess, and so is the direction. There are time-line issues, the film depends too heavily on lame montages to keep you up to date on everyone's misery, and the montages use overly loud songs to convey the emotions that the actors are not. There are also many characters that show up for one scene and are never seen again, but yet they receive billing as though they are an important character, such as Eva Mendes. She shows up as a prop, and then disappears altogether from the film. And yet, Mendes is one of the five actors that get the same billing for Trust the Man as Moore, Duchovny, Crudup, and Gyllenhaal.

The tagline on Trust the Man is "Men play the game. Women know the score." After watching this tremendous cliché of a movie, I am still not sure what that means. The men in Trust the Man cannot be trusted, as they are either cheats and liars, or completely irresponsible. The women, who could be independent, strong, smart females, are written and acted as one-dimensional characters that spend all of their free-time wondering about what the men are doing, and who they are doing it with.

I am not sure whom to blame in the case of Trust the Man. I am leaning toward pointing the finger at Freundlich for writing a terribly un-witty and uninspired script that goes nowhere, and in which not one character learns anything or forwards any true or real emotional journey. He gets my vote all the more for directing this film, in which most scenes are there to either take up time or to show how much of a porn addict Duchovny's character is. However, someone gave Freundlich money in order to make this film, and ultimately, that person is to blame. Either way, save your rental money, and avoid Trust the Man.