I am a big fan of indie music. I love Del Water Gap,
Gregory Alan Isakov, and Caamp. So I was excited to watch an actual indie film, thinking that maybe my love of indie music would transfer to indie film. As it turns out, I was greatly disappointed.

The short film, Trust by Hal Hartley not only put me straight to sleep for a whole class period, but made me feel almost in a strange, dreamlike state. The odd camera angles and drab colors emphasized this sleepwalking feeling I had the entire movie, like I wasn’t quite awake and everything just felt off. And maybe that was the point (the dreamlike state, not the falling asleep part) but I didn’t like that feeling.

I loved the absurdity of The Stranger and how the whole novel felt wild, but also reflective of humanity at its essence. I felt like Trust tried to emulate this and failed.

The whole movie was more confusing than it was absurd. What was with the grenade? Why did Maria continue to wear that dress every single day? What was the whole plot about the missing baby? Or the mom trying to set Matthew up with her older daughter? Why let a random 30 year old that your daughter brought home sleep in your house anyway?

And maybe all of those instances were meant to reflect the absurdity of life, of Maria’s and Matthew’s lives, but they felt misplaced, and as a result the whole film felt off.

I can appreciate what Hartley was getting at, but I certainly did not like it. Maybe with another (full) watch through I could at least understand it.

Hal Hartley’s Trust tells the story of two unlikely people, Maria and Matthew, who find a connection in a world that constantly lets them down. Maria, a pregnant teenager, and Matthew, a socially awkward repairman, both struggle with family issues and emotional isolation. What’s interesting is how their relationship develops not out of romantic attraction, but from a shared need to be understood. Hartley uses dry humor and deadpan dialogue to show how hard it is for people to truly communicate their feelings. Even when the characters seem distant or emotionless, their small gestures, like fixing a broken TV together or simply sitting in silence, show their growing trust. The film’s “big idea” is that real trust is built on honesty and acceptance, not perfection. Both Maria and Matthew are deeply flawed, but that’s what makes their connection feel authentic. This theme still connects to today’s culture, where people often hide behind social media instead of forming real relationships. Trust reminds us that genuine human connection can still exist, even in a world that feels disconnected and cold.

The character Matthew within the movie Trust (1990) is extremely complex. Matthew clearly struggles with self-worth, an abusive relationship with his father, and a degrading mental health. While all of those aspects of Matthew are very prominent, I believe the most prominent struggle that he has throughout the whole movie is purpose.

The movie begins Matthews’ story by showing him working a job related to computers, which he does not like, as well as a snippet of his home life, which he also cannot enjoy because of his father. His father consistently repeats that Matthew is worthless, one instance being that Matthew could never make the bathroom perfectly clean, and Matthew just accepted it. But I think that not only did Matthew accept the fact that his father thinks he is worthless, but he has also let it bleed into his perspective on his own life. He views his life as worthless because it does not have purpose. He has accepted the meaningless cycle of his life. But this all changes when he meets Maria.

I do not think he ever loved Maria, but Maria was pregnant, and she was someone he could take care of. In other words, she gave him purpose. Purpose drove him to live with Maria and quit his job so they could get away. He even says to Maria when he is drunk that he does not love her. Why in such a vulnerable state would he lie? He wouldn’t. He does not love her, but she has become his purpose.

Maria’s mom disrupts this purpose by telling him that Maria does not need him, and his dad comes and echoes that. Starting at ground zero again, we see that Matthew goes right back to his dark thoughts, his grenade. He lost his purpose and, therefore, the will to live.

In the film Trust, we are introduced to Mathew, someone who claims he doesn’t love any one and will never love anyone. He says this throughout the movie, but I don’t believe him.

When Maria and Mathews relationship begin to kindle, Mathew makes it clear that he doesn’t believe in love, and he lives his life how he wants to. One moment where this is seen is when Mathew tells Maria that he respects and admires her, but even so, those two things don’t equal love. He continues to stand by the fact that he doesn’t love, and love isn’t something he’s capable of.

A little later in the movie Mathew and Maria are going through a rough patch when Marias mom is trying to spit the two up. From the drama her mom causes from getting Mathew drunk and forcing him into Pegs bed, Maria decided to go through with the abortion and not marry Mathew. Once Maria sees Mathew again, she tells him what she has decided. This causes Mathew to spiral, especially after he has quit his job and done so much for her. He is found at work, with the pin of the bomb he always caries in his pocket pulled.

Why would he do such a thing if he didn’t love Maria? A person doesn’t decide to kill themselves over someone that isn’t important to them. I think that Mathew hasn’t been shown any sort of love in his life so in turn he has no clue what it is like to actually love someone. One could even argue that his actions portray the greatest form of love. The same love that is represented in arguably the greatest, or most cliche, love story of all time, Romeo an Juliet. This is seen in the way he would rather end his life than to loose the girl.

In the film Trust by Hal Hartley, the protagonist Matthew Slaughters relationship with his father is the catalyst of his lifetime of nihilism. In his first scene on screen Matthew comes home to his bickering father wondering why he decided to quit his job. having to constantly deal with his negative father has led to him choosing to carry around a grenade for any moment giving him control of his fate instead of putting it in someone else’s hands. throughout the movie he mentions he doesn’t believe in love multiple times solidifying his lack of commitment, and trust in others.

when he encounters Maria Coughlin a run away teen whos pregnant from her teen boyfriend he decides to let her crash at his place, showing a more open side of Slaughter. After talking to Maria she convinces him to hand over his grenade the one item he has to control his fate, with Matthew handing this over he shows he is capable of trusting others. although he doesn’t change his stance on love, his commitment towards Maria changes his perspective on his relationship views.

After his marriage being an idea rejected by Maria he decided to take the grenade aka his control back from her. having his control back in his hands he goes back to his nihilistic ways deciding life isn’t worth living. I feel like the writer of Trust only decided to let Maria take back Matthews trust for the happy ending, but in reality Matthew was deadest on blowing up the TV factory and himself due to a lack of purpose in his life.

When I was watching the movie trust it was nowhere near what I thought it was gonna be when we first started watching the film, I expected a very typical love story which was not at all the case. during many parts of the movie it feels very awkward with long pauses but I think it makes everything more real. Maria and Matthew are two people who are broken people who are dealing with struggles, who just so happen to run into each other. They are basically complete strangers to each other and for some reason Maria invites Matthew to stay with her. They barely know each other but within a week they decide to get married and have the child I think that’s why it feels awkward cause for them it is because they are basically strangers.

Another thing I found interesting in trust was how the characters speak. they don’t speak like they are having a natural conversation, they are speaking in a very monotone and emotionless way. I think Hal Hartley used that to make sure that the viewers thought about every word. I think he wanted to draw attention to what they were saying and his way of doing so was having them talk in a certain way.

At first, the film Trust felt kind of weird. The acting seemed a bit emotionless, and the conversations were kind of fast, and some scenes felt a little dramatic, like the men in the trenchcoats on the train and the long line at the TV repair shop. I thought it was a bit weird but then I realized that’s exactly what the writer wanted. Everything was sort of dramatized to make you notice how weird our everyday lives are. The film makes you think about stuff you usually take for granted like work, family, relationships, and especially love.

One line that I specifically remember was when Matthew says, “Some things shouldn’t be fixed”. When he says this he’s talking about a machine at work, but I also think it’s about life. Not everything in life can or should be fixed. A lot of the things that we do involve us following rules without thinking twice and it feels like there’s no importance to it. The film makes you think if living like that is worth it.

Maria’s experiences show the same idea, but in a different way. She tears down her wallpaper, changes her clothes, and sleeps on the floor. She’s trying to figure herself out and be different from what everyone expects and thinks of her. Her “formula“, respect + admiration + trust = love, sounds kind of dumbed down, but it’s also very interesting. She’s defining love in her own words, but not in the way her parents or the world tells her too.

By the end of the film, I think both of them are trying to live true to themselves, even if it means they are “dangerous “. They’re figuring out what’s best for them, either being honest and unsure or being fake and comfortable. Trust might seem kind of odd from a far away perspective, but it’s something very real, with how hard it is to find meaning in the world that just tells us what to do.

Although we have not finished the film Trust yet, I am already hooked. So far as we have watched I’ve noticed multiple motifs come up. For instance televisions, children, and smoking are repeated numerous times. I think the idea of having children could represent responsibility in a way. For instance, in the film even though Matthew’s father is abusive he still seems to care somewhat for Matthew’s future. He keeps urging Matthew to get a job and gets upset when he finds out Matthew is not working. Although this could just be because his father is controlling and obsessive I think it also shows that he wants his son to succeed.

We can also see this idea of responsibility play out in the relationship between Maria and her mother. Despite the fact that Maria’s mother blames Maria for killing her husband (Maria’s father), she seems to care deeply about Maria and her life. For example, when Maria brings Matthew home, Maria’s mother is worried that he is too old for her and thinks she is making bad choices. Even though Maria’s mother can appear cruel because she is ultimately trying to set Matthew up with her other daughter I think in a way it is to protect Maria from getting hurt. With that being said, I believe having children is a symbol of the responsibility parents want to have on their children’s futures and lives.

When Maria first came on screen, I thought to myself “what is going on with her makeup?” The first scene is her applying a bright purple lipstick and she is wearing matching eyeshadow. In the first half of the movie she wears very bright neon colors paired with a varsity jacket. At first I thought it was just typical of the time period, but I think it was a very purposeful choice because her appearance changes after she meets Matthew. When Maria freshens up at Matthew’s house, her dramatic makeup washes off and she changes into a very simple and modest dress. She puts her hair in a ponytail and also starts wearing her glasses. I found it interesting that even after all these changes, she still decides to keep wearing the varsity jacket. Maria stays in this outfit for the remainder of the film. I think her appearance in the beginning of the film portrays her as a very stereotypical teenager, and after meeting Matthew she begins to become a more mature character and it is reflected in her appearance.

We watched the movie Trust in class last week and I have to say I was left confused and also enlightened. There was one particular quote that stuck out to me from Matthew. Although I can’t remember the context behind this scene, I do remember what Matthew had to say. He told someone something along the lines of one does not leave a beat that is familiar to them.

During the movie I have to admit that I was judgmental that neither Maria nor Matthew left their home lives, but especially Matthew who is a grown adult. Once I heard his quote, I began to realize what he meant when he said that. Part of being human is to be able to adapt to your surroundings, in Matthew’s case he adapted to his abusive dad. He knew how his dad would react to certain things, and never bat an eye when he was told to wash the bathroom again, or when he would get hit by his father. This seemed to be a part of his daily routine, or just something that would happen on the regular. This was his beat. The part where I get confused is why it took Matthew such a long time to leave his father’s household, even though he was aware that he was staying with the beat (his father). It was as though he enjoyed the predictability of his home life. I also want to know why it was Maria who seemed to give Matthew a reason to move out and live his life differently. One thing is for certain, Trust is the kind of movie that makes you sit back and think about the relationships you have in life, and how it can be so hard to leave a relationship you know is unhealthy.