Theatre Reviews 10/24/99
Starring Matthew Perry, Neve Campbell, Dylan McDermott, and Oliver Platt Directed by Damon Santostefano Rated PG-13
After years of waiting for Chandler to come out of the closet on Friends, I finally got to watch Matthew Perry do so in Three to Tango. The only catch, he’s not actually gay. When Oscar Novak (Perry) and his partner Peter Steinberg (Platt) are offered a chance at a ninety million dollar architectural job, Oscar will do just about anything to impress the boss. Through a series of inopportune moments of eavesdropping, the boss (McDermott) comes to assume that Oscar is gay, and thinks he is the perfect candidate to spy on his mistress, Amy (Campbell). The conflict comes when Oscar falls head over heels for Amy, who also assumes he is gay. He must then choose between his loyalty to his boss, and his desire to bone hot chicks.
Here’s the challenge. Making a comedy about gay men, without it being nothing more than a barrage of gay jokes. With the exception of a dinner party scene, in which the statement, "Boy you guys throw a lot of dinner parties," is responded to with, "Well, we’re gay," I can’t think of any jokes at the expense of homosexuals. Rather, the humor was more on the phallic end of the scale, including a joke about a black man and Ponderosa, which I still don’t really get. Every ten-year-old in Boston who happened to be in the theatre the same night I was, found this to be especially amusing, (he said penis, tee hee), and it was, to an extent.
Three to Tango is the kind of movie that guys get dragged to by their girlfriends, or guys take girls to when they’re trying to get laid. It was marketed as a romantic movie, which it was, in a 90’s sort of way. It was basically a series of awkward encounters with the opposite (or in some parts, the same) sex. Matthew Perry played a very convincing gay guy. For one, he’s to cute to be strait, and for two, he’s pretty girly. This made these uncomfortable scenes a little easier to take. It wasn’t as though I spent the whole movie trying to understand why everyone though he was gay (something I worry about when going into a movie.)
Overall, this film is perfect for going to on a date. It’s cute, and not too difficult to follow, so if you sit in the back, you’ll probably still be able to give people an idea of the plot. If you’re not so lucky to have a significant other to view this film with, it’ll still make you laugh here and there. And the best part: a cameo from everyone’s favorite camera-jockeying-awkward-teenage-girl Lucy, from Degrassi Jr. High.
Random Hearts
Starring Harrison Ford, Kristin Scott Thomas, Charles S. Dutton, Paul
Guilfoyle, Dennis Haysbert, Bonnie Hunt, Richard Jenkins Directed by
Sydney Pollack Rated R
Reasons why this movie sucked:
1. People from New Hampshire don't have British Accents.
2. Harrison Ford looks dumb with an earring.
3. Manchester, NH is not a quaint New England town.
4. It was made.
Starring Kevin Spacey, Annette Bening, Thora Birch, Mena Suvari, Peter Gallagher, Chris Cooper, Allison Janney, Wes Bentley Directed by Sam Mendes Rated R
It figures that after I drove all the way to Vermont (you don't realize that Rutland is a movie mecca until you live in plymouth) to see this movie, that it would start playing in Plymouth. Even though I've already seen it, I extended the offer to anyone who wanted to go, that I'll go see it again. Why? This movie pretty much ruled. Kevin Spacey's performance as the chronically masturbating father of your average angst-filled teenage girl was worth the price of the ticket alone. This thing about this film is that I had no idea what it was about when I went to see it, and as to not give you any advantage, I'm not going to tell you what it was about either. Insteas, I'll just let you know, that it was a great film filled with amazing imagery, and great characters, that you'd be a fool if you missed.