Trust

All the oscar buzz surrounding Juno made me think that I should expand my abortion-related movie watching. As the reviews for Juno point out, it seems in recent years when Hollywood deals with the issue, they shy away from controversy by making it something that the woman does not want (so as not to confront either the pro-choice or anti-abortion camps). The only counterexample that I can think of is the classic Dirty Dancing.

So, at any rate, Trust. This is a Hal Hartley film starring Adrienne Shelly as Maria and Martin Donovan as Matthew, two complete misfits -- one a high school dropout who discovered she was pregnant, and one a disgruntled technician with serious anger-management issues. They both have screwed up relationships with their parents (in almost the opening scene, Maria slaps her father and he drops dead of a heart attack; but this is then used as an excuse by her mother to make Maria responsible for supporting her mother).

One of the things that's most eptly handled in this movie is their dysfunctions are not wiped away. The characters do grow and mature, but it's not as if love can wipe away their problems or habits. In fact, it's not clear that they do love each other; they talk through their emotions in an autistic dissection of what defines love, finally agreeing on a definition involving respect. As one might expect from a title like Trust, there are (apparent) betrayals and reluctant opening up; nothing is completely resolved, but there's a definite feeling that Matthew and Maria have made a connection that will end up changing themselves completely.