''Trust'' is a 1990 American romantic

black comedy Black comedy, also known as dark comedy, morbid humor, or gallows humor, is a style of comedy that makes light of subject matter that is generally considered taboo, particularly subjects that are normally considered serious or painful to disc ...

film written and directed by Hal Hartley and starring Adrienne Shelly and

Martin Donovan Martin Donovan (born Martin Paul Smith; August 19, 1957) is an American actor. He has had a long collaboration with director Hal Hartley, appearing in many of his films, such as ''Trust'' (1990), ''Surviving Desire'' (1991), ''Simple Men'' (1992) ...

. Two young misfits, both in emotional shock, meet in a Long Island town and through trials develop a platonic relationship based on mutual attraction and trust.

Plot

When naïve and unbookish Maria announced to her family that she had dropped out of high school because of an unplanned pregnancy, her father died of heart failure, her mother kicked her out, and her boyfriend broke up with her. She meets Matthew, a highly educated and extremely moody electronics repairman who keeps losing jobs through inability to accept the views of employers and customers. He offers her a room in the house of his sadistic father, who kicks both of them out. Braving the wrath of her ferocious mother, Maria then goes home with Matthew who, though they never do more than kiss, offers to get a good job, marry her, and bring up her child. But it is not to be. Matthew's father and Maria's mother both try to destroy the innocent relationship and the young people both crack under the strain. Maria has an abortion and Matthew, in despair, tries to blow himself up at the plant where he works. Maria's last sight of him is in a police car as he is driven away.

Cast

* Adrienne Shelly as Maria Coughlin *

as Matthew Slaughter * Merritt Nelson as Jean Coughlin * John MacKay as Jim Slaughter *

Edie Falco Edith Falco (born July 5, 1963) is an American actress. She is best known for portraying Carmela Soprano on the HBO series ''The Sopranos'' (1999–2007), and Nurse Jackie Peyton on the Showtime series ''Nurse Jackie'' (2009–2015). She also ...

as Peg Coughlin *

Karen Sillas Karen Sillas is an American stage and film actress. Early life The daughter of a Greek father and a Swedish mother, Sillas was born in Brooklyn. She graduated from the Acting Conservatory of the State University of New York at Purchase. Car ...

as Nurse Paine

Release

The film premiered at the

Toronto Festival of Festivals The Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF, often stylized as tiff) is one of the largest publicly attended film festivals in the world, attracting over 480,000 people annually. Since its founding in 1976, TIFF has grown to become a perman ...

on September 9, 1990 and was released in theatres on July 26, 1991.

References

External links

''Trust''
at Halhartley.com * * 1990 films American independent films 1990 romantic comedy films Films directed by Hal Hartley Films shot in New York (state) American romantic comedy films Republic Pictures films 1990 independent films 1990s English-language films 1990s American films {{1990s-romantic-comedy-film-stub