--- title: "Trust" year: 1990 kind: "film" canonical: "https://film.one/film/trust" fi1m_id: "trust" imdb_id: "tt0103130" tmdb_id: 37291 wikidata_id: "Q2545805" fi1m_score: 79 critics_score: 66 critics_reviews: 5 published: "2026-09-26T01:55:21.566841+00:00" updated: "2026-09-26T01:55:21.850497+00:00" region: "HK" licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # Trust (1990) Directed by Hal Hartley · 1h 46m · Drama, Comedy, Romance ## Identity Trust - **Canonical:** https://film.one/film/trust - **Type:** Film - **Fi1m ID:** trust - **IMDb ID:** tt0103130 - **TMDB ID:** 37291 - **Wikidata ID:** Q2545805 - **Same entity:** https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0103130/, https://www.themoviedb.org/movie/37291, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q2545805 **Fi1m score: 79** · Critics 66 (early) from 5 reviews *In a sentence:* Boy carries a hand grenade, girl carries a baby; neither is sure which is the worse idea > Hal Hartley’s second film is a deadpan romance between two damaged people on Long Island, written in flat, funny, exact sentences. The manner wears thin in places, but Adrienne Shelly and Martin Donovan make the stillness mean something. ## Synopsis Maria Coughlin (Adrienne Shelly), a high school student on suburban Long Island, tells her parents over breakfast that she is pregnant and has dropped out. Her father calls her a name, she slaps him, and he collapses dead on the kitchen floor. Her mother Jean (Rebecca Nelson, credited as Merritt Nelson) throws her out; her footballer boyfriend Anthony (Gary Sauer) drops her the moment he hears the word pregnant. Across town Matthew Slaughter (Martin Donovan), an electronics repairman, quits his job by clamping his boss’s head in a vice and goes home to a father (John MacKay) who makes him scrub the bathroom twice. Matthew carries a live hand grenade in his jacket. Maria, still in her shiny party dress, finds him sitting alone in an empty house, and the two of them start talking. ## Review Hal Hartley’s second film, after [*The Unbelievable Truth*](https://film.one/film/the-unbelievable-truth) (1989), opens with a slap and a death and gets on with it. Maria Coughlin (Adrienne Shelly) tells her parents she is pregnant, her father insults her, she hits him, and he drops dead on the kitchen lino. That is the first three minutes. Hartley, who wrote, produced and directed, does not play it as tragedy or as farce. He shoots it square, cuts away, and moves on to the next room, and the whole of *Trust* is built like that: dreadful things said in level voices, and a camera that declines to react. It is a good film, and for anyone who can take the manner, a quietly affecting one. Matthew Slaughter (Martin Donovan) repairs televisions, quits by putting his boss’s head in a vice, and goes home to a father (John MacKay) who makes him clean the bathroom and then makes him clean it again. He carries a hand grenade in his jacket and does not say why. Maria, thrown out by her mother Jean (Rebecca Nelson, credited as Merritt Nelson) and dropped by her boyfriend Anthony (Gary Sauer), wanders the streets in a shiny party dress until she finds Matthew sitting in an empty house. They talk. Hartley’s people talk in sentences that sound written down, because they were, and the trick of the film is that Shelly and Donovan say them as if they had only just thought of them. Michael Spiller shoots Long Island in flat, bright colour: a red door, a yellow kitchen, a blue coat, people placed dead centre and often facing us rather than each other. Daniel Ouellette gives the Coughlin house the look of a place where nothing has been moved in twenty years, and the Slaughter house the look of one scrubbed until it hurts. Claudia Brown keeps Maria in that party dress for the first stretch, then puts her in a plain skirt and thick spectacles, and the change in her clothes does the work a page of dialogue about growing up would have done. Nick Gomez cuts on the lines, holding a face for a beat after it has spoken and then leaving hard. Phillip Reed’s score is a few spare electronic figures, repeated under the pauses, that never tell us what to feel. Shelly plays Maria’s growing up as a run of small, practical decisions, and she is good at looking as though she is deciding. Donovan is a big man holding himself very still, the anger showing only in his hands. There is a conversation between them, some way in, about the difference between loving someone and respecting and admiring them, and we laughed at it and then found it had got under our skin. What did it was Donovan’s face, which does not move while Shelly sets out the distinction, and the plain fact that neither of them is joking. These are two people who cannot say what they feel, and the flat delivery is not a style laid over them; it is who they are. The manner has its costs. Everyone in the film speaks in the same cadence, so the comedy is all in one key and there are stretches where it wants a second. A thread about a woman (Suzanne Costollos) who lifts a baby from a pushchair at a bus stop is set up with care and used for less than it promises. Jim Slaughter is written as a monster and MacKay plays him as one, and the scenes in that bathroom go from bleak to repetitive before Hartley lets them go. The pauses are long and the faces still, and we lost patience once or twice in the middle stretch before a line pulled us back. The Coughlin house is where the film has most life. Nelson’s Jean bargains with her daughter for housework as though affection were something you paid off in instalments, and never once raises her voice. Edie Falco, as Maria’s older sister Peg, watches Matthew with an interest she does not bother to hide. Karen Sillas has one scene as a nurse and it is the warmest thing in the picture, a stranger being kind in a room built for bad news. *The Unbelievable Truth* had the same voice without much underneath it. Here the voice has a reason to exist, and the film is better for it. Watch it with someone who will not keep asking why nobody blinks. It runs 106 minutes, and there is a grenade in it, and Hartley knows exactly how long you can be made to wait. *Fi1m score 79, published 26 September 2026.* ## What the critics say With only 5 reviews in so far, the picture is thin but leans mildly warm. Most critics find Hartley’s film distinctive: the deadpan humour and controlled framing draw praise, as does dialogue that reads as literary without sounding written. The reservations are about warmth. Empire finds the film occasionally too cute and knowing for its own good, and the Los Angeles Times warns that the long pauses and emotional thinness will lose some viewers. Two of the five reviews are only partially available, so their verdicts cannot be confirmed, which keeps the spread from being read with much confidence. ## Straight answers **Is Trust worth watching?** *Trust* is worth watching for anyone who can take a romance played entirely in level voices and long pauses, and we scored it 79. Adrienne Shelly and Martin Donovan make Hal Hartley's written-down sentences sound like people thinking, and the film moved us more than its stillness suggests it could. Viewers who want their comedy to change key will lose patience in the middle stretch. **How long is Trust, and what is it rated?** *Trust* runs 1h 46m. It is a drama and comedy film. **Where can I watch Trust in Hong Kong?** *Trust* is not on any streaming or rental service in Hong Kong at the moment. Availability is checked daily. **How does Trust compare to The Unbelievable Truth?** *Trust* is the better film, because Hal Hartley's flat, exact way of talking has something underneath it here that [*The Unbelievable Truth*](https://film.one/film/the-unbelievable-truth) lacks. The earlier film is rougher and cheaper, shorter and slightly stiff, with Adrienne Shelly in both; its jokes come from people repeating what they have heard, and it stays likeable without getting under the skin. Start with *Trust*, then go back if the voice suits you. **What should I watch after Trust?** After *Trust*, try [*The Unbelievable Truth*](https://film.one/film/the-unbelievable-truth) (1989, Fi1m 76): Hartley’s first film, with Shelly again; the same voice, rougher and cheaper. Then [*Metropolitan*](https://film.one/film/metropolitan) (1990, Fi1m 82): Whit Stillman’s talkative Manhattan debutantes, written with the same care for exact sentences; and [*Punch-Drunk Love*](https://film.one/film/punch-drunk-love) (2002, Fi1m 84): Another stiff, furious man finds a woman who does not flinch; bright colour, odd rhythms. ### Reviews we read (5) - **Empire**, William Thomas (75/100, inferred): The review finds the film original and engaging, though occasionally too cute and knowing. It praises Hartley’s dialogue for balancing literary style with realism. [Read](https://www.empireonline.com/movies/reviews/trust-review/) - **Los Angeles Times**, Peter Rainer (65/100, inferred): Rainer finds the film stylish and distinctive, though its emotional thinness and long pauses may lose some viewers. He particularly praises Hartley’s controlled visual style and deadpan humor. [Read](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1991-08-16-ca-580-story.html) - **The New York Times** (64/100, inferred): The headline presents the film as a black comedy about unlikely lovers. The article text was unavailable, so its verdict and specific praise or criticism cannot be confirmed. [Read](https://www.nytimes.com/1991/07/26/movies/review-film-trust-black-humor-and-unlikely-lovers.html) - **Time Out**, GA (64/100, inferred): The available page identifies this as a review but does not reveal the critic’s verdict. Its description frames the film as revisiting the small-town situations of Hartley’s earlier work. [Read](https://www.timeout.com/movies/trust-1) - **Slant Magazine**, Chris Cabin (3/5): The critic regards Trust as a beguiling masterwork whose odd romance and confident artistry reward close attention. They praise Hartley’s bold imagery and the Blu-ray’s clear, colorful transfer, while wishing the extras offered more production context. [Read](https://www.slantmagazine.com/dvd/trust-bd/) ## Details - **Director:** Hal Hartley - **Director:** Hal Hartley - **Writer:** Hal Hartley - **Cinematography:** Michael Spiller - **Editor:** Nick Gomez - **Music:** Phillip Reed - **Production design:** Daniel Ouellette - **Costume design:** Claudia Brown - **Producer:** Bruce Weiss, Hal Hartley - **Cast:** Adrienne Shelly as Maria Coughlin; Martin Donovan as Matthew Slaughter; Rebecca Nelson as Jean Coughlin (as Merritt Nelson); John MacKay as Jim Slaughter; Edie Falco as Peg Coughlin; Gary Sauer as Anthony; Matt Malloy as Ed; Suzanne Costollos as Rachel - **Runtime:** 1h 46m - **First release (the US):** 9 September 1990 - **Genres:** Drama, Comedy, Romance - **Budget:** $700,000 ## Where to watch in Hong Kong Not streaming, renting or buying in Hong Kong at the last check. ## Awards - The Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award 1991: The Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award (won) ## If you liked this - *The Unbelievable Truth* (1989), Fi1m 76: Hartley’s first film, with Shelly again; the same voice, rougher and cheaper. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/the-unbelievable-truth.md) - *The Match Factory Girl* (1990): Kaurismäki’s Finnish deadpan, sadder and shorter; nobody smiles and it still lands. - *Metropolitan* (1990), Fi1m 82: Whit Stillman’s talkative Manhattan debutantes, written with the same care for exact sentences. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/metropolitan.md) - *Punch-Drunk Love* (2002), Fi1m 84: Another stiff, furious man finds a woman who does not flinch; bright colour, odd rhythms. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/punch-drunk-love.md) - *Harold and Maude* (1971), Fi1m 81: The unlikeliest of couples, death treated lightly, and a young man who needs to grow up. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/harold-and-maude.md) --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/film/trust