A Loaded Gun

Abuse. Punishment. Threats. Abandonment. These are words that are not generally associated with family, but in Hal Hartley's "Trust" they all fit perfectly. The 1990s film follows a teenage girl, Maria, in the aftermath of being dumped by her boyfriend and accidentally causing her father's death. In this film, Maria is verbally abused and treated like a servant by her mother and sister. Yet, she still longs for a family. She wants to get married, she wants to find love, and she wants to have children (someday). Why? Why would a person who has endured so much pain at the hands of her own family want to continue that trend? Perhaps it is her naivety, perhaps it is her ignorance towards the problem. Maria's newest friend, a self-proclaimed drifter and possible psychopath, says it best: "A family's like a gun. You point it in the wrong direction and you're going to kill somebody."

Maria's friend, Matthew Savage, has experienced his own familial faults with an emotionally and physically abusive father. Unlike Maria, Matthew shows little interest in family life. Matthew has been turned off by the charms of family. He realizes that family is nothing more than a hand grenade waiting to explode. The volatile situation he foresees in family comes from a variety of notions: love too powerful to contain, emotions too strong to be rational, even hate too strong to subside. Family, particularly as portrayed in this film, is a dangerous situation. There are few movies that show the truth behind this statement- most portray tight-knit, willing-to-do-anything for one another, happy ever after families.

Families are a natural breeding ground for tension, mistrust, and abuse. While there is great potential for a family to become the loving and supportive image we idealize, it is far more likely that familial relations will end poorly. Matthew and Maria are both examples of this paradox, and Mattew is the only one of the two who seems to have the maturity to accept this.