This is the film that made the film world (well, a tiny corner of the film world, anyway) sit up and take notice of an up-and-coming filmmaker named Hal Hartley. Trust exists as a unique little motion picture, a movie which creates a world which manages to be both ridiculous and real at the same time, a mixture mirroring the absurdity which, often times, dominates the structure of actual life. The most remarkable thing about this movie, though, is its ability to craft a charmingly sweet love story in the center out of what seems to be utter emptiness. Martin Donavan and Adrienne Shelley portray two characters, the likes of which I would challenge you to find carbon copies of anywhere in celluloid history. They are real, honest sketches of humanity, and with them Hartley is able to explore why and how we fall in love, and whether you agree with his interpretation of what is love, his love story comes across loud and clear. I once had a professor who claimed there are no new stories to be told. Well, I think Mr. Hartley may have stumbled across one...no, make that, calculatedly made one.
