This weekend I took in Trust the Man which was an awkward movie. It wants to be an adult comedy and a NYC loveletter and is obviously a fun romp for a famous clique (actress Julianne Moore her husband writer/director Bart Freundlich and several of their close friends) Unfortunately the movie looks like it was more enjoyable for them to make than it is for us to watch.
Take for instance this photograph to your left. This is Julianne with her best friend Ellen Barkin on the set of the film, cupping each others breasts for no apparent reason. (They don't share a scene in the film) I love this photo more than anything in the actual movie because it reminds me of actual silly lived-in friendships and not the movie version of the same.The clubfooted feel of Trust the Man stems, I think, from the mixing of realism and fluff. It tries to combine R rated dialogue and adult oriented marital issues while also observing the standard unreality of your fluffy "Hollywood" romantic comedy. The ending is a particularly atrocious example of the latter mode --something probably only Julia Roberts could sell. And she'd even have to sweat for it. No one in real life behaves like this. So if you’re going for a movie-ish romantic fantasy that asks you to suspend all disbelief at the climax, you probably shouldn't lead up to it by painting such a faux gritty portrait of frustrating sexual incompatibilities and child rearing duties. Just a suggestion.
That said the film wasn't a complete waste of time. I dig all chances to see Julianne show off her freckles and her husband, the director, obviously loves them too. She looks beautiful, modern, and sexy and I hope it frees up interest in her for roles unrelated to her current rut: The Sad Mother! She plays Rebecca Pollack who one assumes is a closer approximation of herself than any character she's created before. Rebecca is a successful talented movie actress and mother of two who lives in Manhattan with her writer husband. She is considerably more famous and successful than he.
Given the fame enjoyed by Julianne and Bart in real life it proved difficult (for me at least) to divorce these characters "Rebecca and Tom" from them. And I didn't enjoy viewing it as an autobiography. I don't like wondering if Bart cheats on the goddess herself and I don't like thinking of Julianne as an actor that would tell her directors to go f*** themselves, as she does in the film dismissing a very one-dimensional side character. Any number of easy changes to the screenplay might've distanced these characters a bit more from the actual couple we know. One less child. One more child. Rebecca could have been a stage star only rather than a film star doing a play. Why is David Duchovny sporting Bart's hairstyle in the epilogue? Etcetera.
As for Julianne's comedic abilities, a continual cause of fan arguments, I should report that she seems a little more comfortable this time out but not quite there yet. But once again --and I had really never hoped to be reminded of Laws of Attraction, damn you Bart!-- she is forced to shove sweets into her mouth in private for a bit of humiliating slapstick. This time rather than using a public restroom she does it in the privacy of her own kitchen. Over on Adam's blog you can read an interesting theory as to why Julianne Moore isn't so good at this sort of light comedy shtick.
Now long time readers of The Film Experience know that Julianne holds a very special place in my heart. I've met her. I love her almost more than anyone (except you know who obviously). I once saw an interview in which the reporter asked her how she feels about critics and she gave a very respectful answer (don't remember it but it wasn't dumb or dismissive) and then she added that the only thing that upsets her about reviews is when they get personal.
When she said that I felt really guilty about one particular thing I said many years ago in a review but this time I feel no guilt. If you're going to make a movie starring you and your group of friends that's about a group of a friends and seems to be about your marriage, you have to expect that people might bring up your personal lives in their review. I'm just sayin'. Play fair now.
Anywayyyyyyy..... We learned from various junket reports that Maggie Gyllenhaal is the only new member of this filmmaking clique (Even Julianne's most frequent co-star James LeGros--five films together now starting with the masterpiece Safe-- shows up for a comic bit as a former fling of Rebecca's.) This is an insular world we're watching. So perhaps unsurprisingly it's the outsider who is most easily accessible to the audience. Maggie Gyllenhaal, unburdened by the comedic shtick that is parcelled out to her co-stars is nearly luminous and you totally root for her character. Maggie is following her baby brother Jake's big year with one of her very own. She's got two movies already in theaters (this and World Trade Center) and her Oscarbait lead actress bid arrives soon in the form of Sherrybaby. All that plus she'll soon be delivering "Jake Gyllenhaal's friend Peter Sarsgaard's Baby's Momma's baby"
Busy girl. Fine actress.
