A pleasant but trivial tale of yuppies

Published 9:00 pm Thursday, August 31, 2006

A collection of deft performers shine in individual scenes in “Trust the Man”: Garry Shandling as a sensitive psychologist, James Le Gros as a hilariously self-involved folk singer, Ellen Barkin as a book publisher with an erotic agenda.

Unfortunately, these people aren’t stars of “Trust the Man.” Their scenes flit by between the margins of the more conventional main characters.

Writer-director Bart Freundlich has assembled a Manhattan carousel designed after late-’70s Woody Allen, but woefully lacking in gravity. Two couples hold center stage: a well-known actress (Julianne Moore, Freundlich’s wife) and her house-husband (David Duchovny), and her Peter Pan younger brother (Billy Crudup) and his all-too-patient girlfriend (Maggie Gyllenhaal).

The problems facing these folks are achingly banal. Duchovny wants more sex from his busy wife, and he finds temptation in the young mothers at his kids’ school. Moore, meanwhile, is starting a new play at Lincoln Center.

Crudup won’t grow up, while Gyllenhaal – everybody say this together – hears her biological clock ticking. He reconnects with an old flame (fun Eva Mendes) and has manly heart-to-heart talks with Duchovny about their problems.

A lot of this is breezy, and the actors are easy to watch, especially Duchovny in a rare big role. (When Shandling comes on early in the film, counseling Duchovny and Moore in a once-a-year session, you hope for a renewal of the kooky rapport the two men shared on Shandling’s old TV show – but sadly, it’s just one scene.)

Duchovny also has a couple of good scenes at a sex addiction group therapy meeting. As a writer, Freundlich has improved over his first two films, “The Myth of Fingerprints” and “World Traveler.”

The casting works against the other couple. Gyllenhaal, a leading young actress, comes across as far too smart to tag along with Crudup’s manchild. And he doesn’t have the innate charm to make his character more than a louse.

The whole Manhattan-as-wonderland thing has been done many times, but cinematographer Tim Orr does make the island look good. I couldn’t help thinking that various shops and restaurants were getting shout-outs as signifiers of hipness, however.

Although it is enjoyable enough to watch the actors work through their problems, the movie feels trivial. The final couple of reels are particularly weightless. In the end, these people deserve each other – and their problems.

Julianne Moore and David Duchovny star in “Trust the Man.”