''Trust the Man'' is a 2005
romantic comedy-drama
Comedy drama, also known by the portmanteau ''dramedy'', is a genre of dramatic works that combines elements of comedy and drama. The modern, scripted-television examples tend to have more humorous bits than simple comic relief seen in a typical ...
film written and directed by
Bart Freundlich
Bartholomew Freundlich (born January 17, 1970) is an American film director, television director, screenwriter, and film producer.
Early life
Freundlich was born and raised in Manhattan, the son of Debbie, a marketing consultant, and Larry Freu ...
. The film is set in New York and centers around two couples as they deal with relationship issues such as intimacy and commitment.
Plot
The film centers around four best friends: Married couple Tom and Rebecca and longtime relationship partners Tobey and Elaine. The film follows the two couples as they face trials and temptations in their relationships.
Tom, after feeling a lack of intimacy with his wife, meets a divorced mother at his sons school. Rebecca, a film actress making her stage debut, meets a younger actor who shows infatuation for her named Jasper. Tobey, who does not show interest in settling down for marriage or kids, runs into an old fling from college named Faith. Elaine, after confronting Tobey about wanting to get married and have a family, meets several suitors throughout the film.
The story follows Tom and Tobey as they attempt to mend their relationships with their partners.
Cast
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David Duchovny
David William Duchovny ( ; born ) is an American actor, writer, producer, director, novelist, and singer-songwriter. He is known for portraying FBI agent Fox Mulder on the television series ''The X-Files'' (1993–2002, 2016-2018) and as write ...
as Tom Pollack
*
Julianne Moore
Julie Anne Smith (born December 3, 1960), known professionally as Julianne Moore, is an American actress. Prolific in film since the early 1990s, she is particularly known for her portrayals of emotionally troubled women in independent films, a ...
as Rebecca Pollack
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Billy Crudup
William Gaither Crudup (; born July 8, 1968) is an American actor. He is a four-time Tony Award nominee, winning once for his performance in Tom Stoppard's play ''The Coast of Utopia'' in 2007. He has starred in numerous high-profile films, inc ...
as Tobey
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Maggie Gyllenhaal
Margalit Ruth "Maggie" Gyllenhaal (; born November 16, 1977) is an American actress and filmmaker. Part of the Gyllenhaal family, she is the daughter of filmmakers Stephen Gyllenhaal and Naomi Foner Gyllenhaal, Naomi Achs, and the older sister o ...
as Elaine
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Eva Mendes
Eva de la Caridad Méndez (, ; born March 5, 1974), known professionally as Eva Mendes, is an American actress, model and fashion designer. Her acting career began in the late 1990s, with a series of roles in films such as '' Children of the Cor ...
as Faith Faison
*
Garry Shandling
Garry Emmanuel Shandling (November 29, 1949 – March 24, 2016) was an American actor, comedian, writer, director, and producer.
Shandling began his career writing for sitcoms, such as '' Sanford and Son'' and ''Welcome Back, Kotter''. He made ...
as Dr. Beekman
*
Ellen Barkin
Ellen Rona Barkin (born April 16, 1954) is an American actress and a producer. Her breakthrough role was in the 1982 film '' Diner'', and in the following years, she had starring roles in films such as ''Tender Mercies'' (1983), ''Eddie and the ...
as Norah
*
Dagmara Domińczyk
Dagmara Domińczyk ( ; born July 17, 1976) is a Polish Americans, Polish-American actress and author. She has appeared in the films ''Rock Star (2001 film), Rock Star'' (2001), ''The Count of Monte Cristo (2002 film), The Count of Monte Cristo'' ...
as Pamela
*
Justin Bartha
Justin Lee Bartha (born July 21, 1978) is an American actor, known for his roles as Riley Poole in the ''National Treasure'' film series, Doug Billings in ''The Hangover'' trilogy, and David Sawyer in the NBC comedy series '' The New Normal''. ...
as Jasper Bernard
*
Sterling K. Brown as Rand
*
James LeGros
James Le Gros () (born April 27, 1962) is an American actor. He was nominated for the Independent Spirit Award for Best Supporting Male for his performance in ''Living in Oblivion''.
Career
James Le Gros appeared as Rick in Gus Van Sant's 1989 ...
as Dante
*
Glenn Fitzgerald
Glenn Fitzgerald (born December 21, 1971) is an American actor of stage, film, and television.
Career
His film roles have included Homicide Detective Anderson in Kathryn Bigelow's ''Detroit''; Lonnie, the son of Alan Alda and Lily Tomlin's ch ...
as Goren
*
David Greenspan
David Greenspan (born 1956) is an American actor and playwright. He is the recipient of six Obies, including an award in 2010 for Sustained Achievement.
Life
Greenspan was born in 1956 in Los Angeles, California. He holds a B.A. in Drama fro ...
as Francis
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Paul Hecht as Amis
*
Jim Gaffigan
James Christopher Gaffigan (born July 7, 1966) is an American stand-up comedian, actor, writer, and producer. His material often addresses fatherhood, laziness, food, religion, and general observations. He is regarded as a "clean" comic, using l ...
as Gordon
*
Jayne Houdyshell
Jayne Houdyshell (born September 25, 1953) is an American, Tony-winning actress known for her performances on stage and screen.
Houdyshell made her Broadway debut in the 2005 production of ''It's a Wonderful Life''. The following year she earn ...
as Support Group Leader
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Kate Jennings Grant
Kate Jennings Grant (born March 23, 1970) is an American actress. She has appeared in a number of Broadway productions during her career, including '' Proof'', '' An American Daughter'', and ''Guys and Dolls''. She also has appeared in films such ...
as Support Group Woman
*
Brian Tarantina
Brian Tarantina (March 27, 1959 – November 2, 2019) was an American stage, screen, and television character actor born in New York City. He was known for his roles on such shows as ''One Life to Live'', ''The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel'', and ''Gil ...
as Crazy Hair Driver
*
Noelle Beck
Noelle Beck (born December 14, 1967, in Baltimore, Maryland) is an American actress, best known for her role as Trisha Alden on the ABC daytime soap opera ''Loving''.
Career
Beck graduated from Baltimore School for the Arts. She portrayed ''Lov ...
as Flight Attendant
*
Bob Balaban
Robert Elmer Balaban (born August 16, 1945) is an American actor, author, comedian, director and producer. He was one of the producers nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture for ''Gosford Park'' (2001), in which he also appeared.
Balab ...
as Tobey's Therapist (uncredited)
*
John Carroll Lynch
John Carroll Lynch (born August 1, 1963) is an American character actor and film director. He first gained notice for his role as Norm Gunderson in '' Fargo'' (1996). He is also known for his television work on the ABC sitcom ''The Drew Carey Show ...
as Doctor (deleted scene)
Release
''Trust the Man'' premiered at the
2005 Toronto International Film Festival
The 30th Toronto International Film Festival ran from September 8–17 and screened 335 films from 52 countries - 109 of these films were world premieres, and 78 were North American premieres.
Awards
At the Festival's closing event, the following ...
and was picked up by
Fox Searchlight Pictures
Searchlight Pictures, Inc. is an American film production company and a subsidiary of Walt Disney Studios, which is part of the Walt Disney Company. Founded in 1994 as Fox Searchlight Pictures, Inc. for 20th Century Fox (later 20th Century St ...
for distribution.
The film opened in the United States on August 18, 2006.
Reception
, ''Trust the Man'' holds a 28% approval rating on
Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...
, based on 102 reviews with an average rating of 4.52/10. The website's critics consensus reads: "What aspires to be a sophisticated, unconventional romantic comedy turns out to be a contrivance-filled pretender to other, better films of its genre." Another review aggregator,
Metacritic
Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...
, gives the film a 43/100 approval rating based on 30 critics' reviews.
Michael Rechtshaffen of ''
The Hollywood Reporter
''The Hollywood Reporter'' (''THR'') is an American digital and print magazine which focuses on the Cinema of the United States, Hollywood film industry, film, television, and entertainment industries. It was founded in 1930 as a daily trade pap ...
'' praised the film, saying "Both geographically and thematically speaking, writer-director Freundlich finds himself on vintage Woody Allen turf here -- as in the "
Manhattan
Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...
"/"
Husbands and Wives
''Husbands and Wives'' is a 1992 American comedy-drama film written and directed by Woody Allen. The film stars Allen, Mia Farrow, Sydney Pollack, Judy Davis, Lysette Anthony, Juliette Lewis, Liam Neeson and Blythe Danner. The film debute ...
" Woody Allen -- while still managing to lend the production a unique voice of its own. And Allen would've killed for Freundlich's terrific cast." Liz Beardsworth of ''
Empire
An empire is a "political unit" made up of several territories and peoples, "usually created by conquest, and divided between a dominant center and subordinate peripheries". The center of the empire (sometimes referred to as the metropole) ex ...
'' gave the film 3 out of 5 stars and wrote "Freundlich’s retread gleans new colour thanks to his sparkling dialogue, the urbane New York setting and great work from his superior cast, all of whom flesh out their roles so that empathy with their respective plights comes easily."
Accolades
References
External links
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{{Bart Freundlich
2005 films
2005 romantic comedy films
Films directed by Bart Freundlich
Films scored by Clint Mansell
Fox Searchlight Pictures films
American romantic comedy films
Sidney Kimmel Entertainment films
2000s English-language films
2000s American films