Trust the Man
starring David Duchovny, Julianne Moore, Billy Crudup, Maggie Gyllenhaal and Gary Shandling
written and directed by Bart Freundlich
I often abhor the Japanese titles of English-language films, because so often I think the titles are completely off the mark. But the Japanese title of Trust the Man - “No sex, No sex!” - is crude, but pretty well hits the nail right on the head. Trust the Man is a story about the troubled intimate lives of two couples in New York City. The premise - people’s tangled relationships, including intimate relationships - feels very Woody Allen-ish. But I don’t recall Woody Allen ever dealing with sex the way Trust the Mandoes. But that may just be because Allen’s films are aging. Or, maybe I am. Anyway, I watched the film mostly because I like David Duchovny (Special Agent Fox Mulder from the famous Chris Carter TV show The X-Files). I think he is nice to look at and to listen to.
In the film, Duchovny is married to the sister (Julianne Moore) of his best friend, Billy Crudup. So the conversation between these best friends inevitably involves some marginal, shared brother-sister intimate information. My favorite scene is when Crudup is eating lunch with his sister who is speculating that maybe menopause is contributing to her relationship problems.
I’m your brother! Don’t talk to me about your vagina. It’s bad enough that my best friend has sex with you!
I thought, “Yeah, right on! Tell it to her!” because I don’t want to hear my Canadian sisters-in-law talking about their menopause, or my female university classmates telling my about their uterine polyps and biopsies.