Matrixiole Simple and well acted, it has tension enough to knot the stomach.

Rio Hayward All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

Adeel Hail Unshakable, witty and deeply felt, the film will be paying emotional dividends for a long, long time.

Ava-Grace Willis Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.

tedg One of the significant tragedies in modern film is the coupling of one of our most powerful actresses with an insipid filmmaker.Here, we have her placed in a film he made, playing an actress with an insipid husband — a writer. He has a friend who is there simply to say goofier things, and thereby make the film appealing. As with all date movies, the separated couple is reunited by a public confession of love that is accepted (and happily ever after...). In this case, that confession literally happens at a play Julianne's character is in. So there's the simple, mechanical narrative fold.As a quirky, inconsequential film, its not so bad, about in the middle of its cohort. Our goofy pair, anchored by Billy Crudup who is observed by Gyllenhaal (and in another position, Shandling). But no one really comes to film simply to tread water in the flood of desperate romance. We come for some advance. With films that advertise themselves as trivial, a trivial advance will do. Nothing here does that, and because the centerpiece is a woman who is patiently wasting her life, the message is clear. So I will recommend that you not watch this unless you are prepared to get depressed.Ted's Evaluation -- 1 of 3: You can find something better to do with this part of your life.

dilbertsuperman Duchovny and Crudup are the main characters in this film and we see the world around them through the prism of their significant others and how the four of them all interact with each other.Duchovny's married to Crudup's sister- which is kind of unclear in the beginning and hobbles the script's integrity as a result. It's almost as if he wasn't written in as the brother and then later on they changed their minds.The women in this film are not particularly attractive, mainly due to unflattering lighting and camera angles and this could have been intentional but, I like a little eye candy myself and this movie is short on that.What we DO have plenty of is duchovny's famous wiseass deadpan delivery of comedy that makes you think a little bit in order to get the joke sometimes. If you don't enjoy his sense of humor- you will despise this film. I like his smirk ridden sarcasm and verbal jabs that half his victims don't even comprehend as an insult -so for me it was entertaining, the scene with the sandwich and the group therapy was classic for his style.What we don't get in this movie is a believable ending or consistently believable characters- there are a few scenes that should have been on the editing floor and a bit more plot would have been nice. But this is a dorky romantic comedy so you can't be too harsh on it. As this genre goes- it's a pretty good one.When you watch this film you may think it is hokey or dorky but you will find enough laughs in between to keep watching. This is not a stellar flick, it's kind of mediocre and enjoyable but not really up to snuff with the dialog, the plot or the camera work. The unique humor presentation is what makes this movie watchable for me- you will hear jokes you wouldn't hear anywhere else, obscure, inside and of the moment, and that's fun.PLOT: two couples both break up and then we watch them try and get back together in fits and starts with all the classic scenes- the weird new boyfriend, the dinner party, the drama scene in public, etc.... Duchovny's wife's brother is half of couple number two in the plot. you will recognize the woman, in couple number two,Maggie Gyllenhaal as the lead in the weird and suggested film SECRETARY. Secretary is about as close as you can find to the exact opposite of this flick. :-)

Christopher Smith With over 100 feature films released in year, it can be hard to keep track of all the titles worth tracking down and checking out. Last year I saw a preview for Trust the Man before Thank You For Smoking, but with the great number of other flicks coming out in wider release, I forgot about it until this weekend. After watching it, I wish I had forgotten about it completely for there is almost nothing redeeming about this cinematic catastrophe. The cast has no chemistry, the writing and directing is amateurish, and cinematography is murky.However, the picture's biggest fault is the tone. Trust the Man drifts uneasily from dirty sex comedy to tepid romance to boring drama from scene to scene, making for not only an extremely frustrating viewing experience, but an uncomfortable one as well. It's as writer/director Bart Freundlich didn't know what genre he wanted his movie to fall under during shooting, thinking that he would decide later in the editing room. Apparently that didn't work out either as it seems there are numerous scenes missing or incomplete. Other scenes go on far too long(the scenes with Billy Crudup in his car are perfect examples). There wasn't a single scene in Trust the Man I found effective, funny, or well done. The plot is a huge mess, gaping with holes. The only reason I give it a 1 as opposed to a zero is I reserve zeros for only those films that I find morally offensive/repugnant or without any artistic value whatsoever. 1/10

triple8 SPOILERS: What a cast this movie had! And the story sounded interesting too with a lot of potential. This is the kind of thing that I would normally like. But I really didn't care for the movie at all. I found it mostly average and was surprisingly disappointed.The performers were fine. Nobody really jumped out at me but nobody was awful either. But the movie itself just was not all that interesting. The characters were not all that compelling and the overall story didn't have a lot of oomph to it. With a cast like this I thought it would be a lot better then it wound up being.On paper this movie sounds great. It's got it all. A Great cast, a good story, it's got that New York flavor that I often love in movies. But somehow it didn't add up to as much as it should have. Not much of the movie was funny. In fact I am not sure I laughed more then once or twice. And the situations were very talky but a lot of them didn't go anywhere. I wasn't all that interested in any of the characters except Crudup's Toby and even then I wasn't hooked. It seems like something was missing overall. I think the humor could have been more biting and edgy. Some of it seemed very sitcomish and there was so much emphasis on and joking about sex. I could see this more as a television series then as a movie.It was also rather slow moving and at times just seemed to be drifting along. I did think the city feel to the film was one of the strong points. I would say this movie's around average. The ending was cute though. Very cutesy but surprisingly fun and a bit more creative then I would have expected. I think this movie had such a great cast and such a good storyline that more could have been done with it to give it more of an offbeat, fun feel. I'd also have liked to have the characters fleshed out a little bit more and seen more of an edge to the humor and more energy to the movie as a whole. I'd give this a 5.5 or so but wouldn't really say it's a must see.