For a movie that bills itself as just another New York romance flick, Trust the Man offered quite a few humorous surprises for me to enjoy. I’m not big on the romantic comedy genre, and going into them, I don’t expect to find a large joke cache waiting to take off my socks in fits of laughter; luckily Trust the Man exceeded expectations and you may find it a worthy funny bone adversary waiting for you at your local rental store.
Tom (David Duchovny), a freelance writer, and Rebecca (Julianne Moore), an established actress, are a happily married couple living in New York; they have a nice apartment, family, you name it. With a daughter in pre-school, it hardly seems like the best time for marital problems, and yet that’s the call of the day. Tom finds himself enamored with the flirtatious mother of his daughter’s classmates – and with the sexual intimacy between him and Rebecca dying down – he gets drawn into the realm of infidelity.
The second couple of the film is another freelance writer, Tobey (Billy Crudup), the brother of Rebecca and best friend of Tom, and Elaine (Maggie Gyllenhaal) a business woman working in a publishing company. This couple also encounters problems related to that ever-present relationship theme: commitment. Elaine desperately wants a baby, or two, or three, while Tobey still wants to enjoy the youth of life that he seems incapable of escaping. We see the typical routines: a male move out of couple’s apartment, male seeks help in sex addict support group and friend, and finally male realizes he doesn’t “deserve” the girl but fights desperately to get her back. To make it better, this happens to both males. This film definitely knows who the intended audience will side with, neh?
The movie resolves in the expected romantic comedy fashion, but the raw and sometimes hilarious humor shines through, making it an enjoyable piece up until the cheese ball ending. Some of the funniest instances include David Duchovny convincing a circle of sex addicts that he has a lunch meat fetish – mainly ham (I don’t think he specified honey-glazed but I imagine that would be tops), any of the conversations between Duchovny and Crudup as they write (the web-surfing moments of Duchovny are great), and some of Julianne Moore’s deadpan lines have a surprising punch to them as well.
As far as acting goes, none of our fantastic four offer Oscar-worthy performances, but hey, who’s going into this movie expecting that? For what it is, everyone does a great job. David Duchovny has unleashed his humorous side over the years (see Evolution) and those of us who enjoy him whatsoever will probably want even more of him after seeing Trust the Man. He fills his part like a giant kid who’s having the time of his life. Duchovny handles the role perfectly and I hope to see more of his comedic side in the future. Julianne Moore is as splendid as always and serves as the perfect counterbalance to her immature and sex-crazed hubby. She plays a good infidelity victim and yet seems to settle at the end purely to give the movie a round edge.
Maggie Gyllenhaal gives another good performance despite the fact that she seems to be overworked as an actress. She seems to be in every movie and yet still offers good performances that fit the films. Sadly, this female role seems to be overly commitment-minded as a means to counterbalance the equally overdone antics of Billy Crudup. Don’t get me wrong, during the entire movie I was thinking Crudup was so funny that he honestly looked like a trimmer version of Jack Black. But the way the film is written to show the contrast between the immaturity of males and the serious take-no-crap attitudes of their respective female counterparts gives it a preachy and unrealistic ending. As I’ve already said, the female leads seem to rejoin with their men purely to make the movie end. Tragic, but ah well, still a good flick.
So, if you’re searching for a movie that will satisfy the lady’s desire for a funny romantic comedy but don’t want the male voicing over the majority of the film commenting how unfunny and boring it is (or making fun of the characters and their situations), then you may have found what you’re looking for in Trust the Man. A humorous romp through the issues of commitment touches on the serious topics, often in very wry tones, but doesn’t delve too deep so you still feel like you can laugh. In hindsight, it’s really a brilliant setting to instill in the film, since you can tell Duchovny and Crudup are laughing themselves silly through about 90% of the film (and I’m perfectly okay with that).
"Trust the Man" opens September 9, 2006 and is rated R. Comedy, Romance. Written and directed by Bart Freundlich. Starring Billy Crudup, David Duchovny, Julianne Moore, Maggie Gyllenhaal.
