I've got a cold, so I'm going to make this brief.
I wrote extensively about Reservoir Dogs earlier: it's great.
This is the first time I've seen Trust. It's my third Hal Hartley film (also seen Henry Fool and Simple Men, liked the first, love the second). Like those other films, it's stagey, fun quirky and actually rather forgettable. I've seen Simple Men at least four times, and barely have any idea what its about, I just know I really like it. Similarly, I saw Trust two weeks ago, and really don't remember much of that great dialogue. I'm just left with the feeling that I had a good time watching it. Maybe that's Hartley, maybe its something with my brain, I don't know.
As for problems with the film, I had a couple: the ending I think is really silly, actually, any scene with the grenade is pretty lame. Shelly seems like she's playing a different character in the opening scenes than she is at any other time in the film. Her character doesn't transform after meeting Donovan, she changes instantly into his ideal girl, which is weird. Much of the mother's motivation doesn't make a whole lot of sense, and her scheme to trap Donovan in bed with Edie Falco so Shelly can see them is really dumb. I like the way Shelly plays its resolution, but Falco's actions don't really make any sense ("hey there's a passed out guy in my bed! guess I'll take my clothes off too!")
It's a really good movie. I can't say I'm in love with it, as so many others in this bracket have seemed to have fallen. It's really hard to emotionally connect to something that's so intentionally artificial, stagey and written, and so it's to Hartley's credit that he's able to inspire that in so many viewers. Similarly, despite the very writtenness of the film, its the emotions that linger for me as well (part of why I find his film's so hard to remember, perhaps).
Anyway, Trust is a very good film. But it's not better than Unforgiven, Dead Man, Eyes Wide Shut or Reservoir Dogs.