"Dad, give me five dollars"
The opening line of the film Trust is delivered in a monotone way by Adrienne Shelly, as she applies her purple lipstick and stares blankly into her compact mirror. This shot establishes all that there is to know about the character, Maria -- a pregnant high school drop out who is a perfect case study for youthful entitlement and vanity.
The film's other main character, Matthew, is a moody electronics repairman who gets tossed around by his abusive father. It's a clear vision from that start that both the characters inhabit a heightened version of the world around us. But as the film goes on, slowly the personas beneath Matthew and Maria are revealed, the feeling of disillusionment they experience seems to come from a place of intense emotional pain. The film's attitude toward marriage and parenting is somewhat of a different take on it than many films. Ultimately the film puts the idea of marriage as something that is artificial and a detrimental institution. From the characters of Peg to Matthew's father, we see that marriage never sticks, it never makes either happy.
As for Maria and Matthew, we see them start on the path to marriage with him proposing to Maria and planning on running away to get married with her unborn child. But that slowly comes to a halt with the end of the movie as we see Maria betray the premise of the film, that trust, admiration and respect are better than love, by having the abortion. She finds Matthew with Peg in bed, though we don't see any emotion from her, the next scene is Maria at the abortion clinic which we can infer that she has felt betrayed by Matthew and therefore she no longer trusts him, she no longer has the trust, admiration, and respect for Matthew. In a way I see this standstill on their path to marriage as a way to save both Maria and Matthew from the heartbreak and disappointment that seems to follow any marriage in the movie. Maybe, just maybe, Hartley wanted to preserve the only good and honest thing in the movie by not playing out the ending to Maria and Matthew's story.
I agree with you about Matthew and Maria being "saved" from all the awful things that comes with marriage. Though while watching the film it seemed like a bad thing when Maria gave up on Matthew and got the abortion, it was actually a good thing in the long run. It stopped them from getting married, therefore preventing a future of pain for them.
ReplyDeleteI agree with the pattern of failed marriages predicting the inevitability of unhappiness in marriage, especially for Maria and Matthew. I also think it kind of ties back to the idea of social constructs, of which marriage is one, and how they are bound to make one always in pain. For Maria and Matthew, they have never been traditional in any sense and marriage would ruin their relationship completely.
ReplyDeleteThis was really well written and points out something I didn't initially put together! I feel a lot better about the movie now, knowing that the abortion was her protecting herself from the pain she has seen her mother go through. What this also points out then, is that communication is very important!!
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed this take on the abortion and the end of their path to marriage! When Maria initially got the abortion, I'll admit I was disappointed because I knew it would bring an end to the potential happy ever after. Throughout the film, however, we see happy ever afters continually get ruined through marriage, so why do that to this one? I think it's particularly good they didn't get married because they are both rather naive, and I think neither really knows what to expect out of marriage or how to make it function.
ReplyDeleteYou make a good point that Trust attempts to demonstrate how detrimental marriage is as an institution. I think also it does a good job at demonstrating how child rearing in the U.S. screws up so many kids.
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