There are many films and novels that deal with the whole idea of an unlikely friendship being formed between two individuals who are either worlds apart or who both just happen to be a little bit strange. It’s practically a whole genre in itself. I really enjoy them, even if they can be kind of formulaic. There’s almost always a “be yourself” message, for instance, and love usually forms between the two main characters. Still, I think that the best of these stories do have an organic, sincere feel to them. Trust is one such film, and it’s interesting in that, while the protagonists do want to get married, it isn’t really about love. It’s about something similar to love, but separate from it at the same time, and whether or not this eventually develops into romance is hard to say.
The two protagonists are Maria and Matthew, who, at the beginning, are such polar opposites that they make Sam and Diane look like identical twins. One thing they do have in common, though, is how self-absorbed the both of them are. Maria has dropped out of school many times, and ends up accidentally killing her father after announcing to him that she is pregnant. (Oops.) As for Matthew, he’s an incredibly skilled repairman, but refuses to work on TV sets because he sees them as the opiate of the masses. In a way, this makes his behaviour kind of adolescent, despite his obvious intelligence. For at least the first half of the film, he can’t back down on anything. Not only that, he has a tendency to get surprisingly violent. Even though he’s a moody intellectual, Matthew is a pretty formidable fighter, and it’s kind of hilarious to see how all the tough guys he encounters are absolutely terrified of him. He’s like Harold Chasen’s crazy older brother. The reason for all of this is probably because of his father, a war veteran who really seems to resent him. In fact, the way he treats Matthew is pretty horrible. I know that Matthew does need to grow up and get a job, but to me, his father’s attitude comes across as way too extreme. Maria’s mother isn’t too happy with her child, either, though that’s a little more understandable, considering how she blames Maria for her husband’s death. With her father gone, Maria is now expected to go to work and support her mother, who refuses to forgive her for something that was a genuine accident, albeit a rather large one.
When she first discovers what she’s done, Maria runs away from home, which is how she encounters Matthew. He lets stay at his house (or really, his father’s house) for a while, and while they don’t exactly become friends, they do develop some sort of mutual understanding. Both of them end up wanting to protect each other, especially when it comes from their vindictive parents. And so, the two decide to get married. Matthew’s even going to take a job he’d previously rejected just so he can support her. Both characters end up changing a great deal in a short amount of time thanks to both of their worlds coming together. Maria (who we actually don’t know a lot about, compared to Matthew) turns out to be a lot less shallow than she originally appeared to be, while Matthew ends up having to make sacrifices just to get along in life. While mostly positive, the latter does end up having some bad effects on Matthew’s happiness. He even starts watching TV himself, tired after having to constantly just do what he’s told at his job. Ultimately, though, their relationship is a good thing, as well as a very rare one. It’s quite hard to define, but as the title suggests, it’s based on trust. For most of the film, they aren’t attracted to each other in any way, neither romantically nor physically, and it’s difficult to say quite what grows from that. There is one scene where Maria is upset because she thinks Matthew has been unfaithful to her, for instance, but maybe the only thing bothering her is that he betrayed her trust. They form a kind of unwritten contract with one another, where both just have to believe that the other person will be there for them. That’s not an easy thing to do, but they accept it nevertheless. They way they interact isn’t exactly like a conventional wife and husband, and it can’t even be compared to that of a brother and sister. It just starts out as pure trust.
