The Threesome Review: Zoey Deutch Rom-Com Delights in the Morning After

Ahead of a SXSW screening for Chad Hartigan’s The Threesome, the director of the film came out to address a theater audibly ready to imbibe in the frothiness of a rom-com with a three-way hook-up. This is not unusual for a film festival, of course. Filmmakers are often on hand to discuss their work. Nonetheless, given that this particular theater was also one which served food and drink, burger and beers, Hartigan had a unique pro-tip for his film: finish the finger food early, because the eponymous threesome in the movie arrives shockingly fast. When that comes, no one will want to hear you scarfing down french fries during sexy times.

It was sage advice for obvious reasons, but it also in retrospect hinted that Hartigan, screenwriter Ethan Ogilby, and the film’s three stars had more on their minds than sex comedy hijinks. That is still a major element of The Threesome, too, when Zoey Deutch’s cool-girl Olivia convinces a BFF who carries a not-so-secret flame for her, Connor (Jonah Hauer-King), and a sweet young thing hanging out at their restaurant, Jenny (Ruby Cruz), to join her in bed at the same time. However, this night of surprise foreplay and faint naughtiness—at least for two of the parties who behave like kids just asked to spend seven minutes of heaven—is only the opening salvo. It is the inciting incident; the action which sets the real story in motion.

For most assuredly, it is a rare morning (and/or several weeks) after when three people discover that two of them are now pregnant. And apparently from the same night.

This setup also invites a certain interpretation when reduced to a logline, one which Olivia, Connor, and Jenny are only too acutely aware of. There are laughs to be had, but pain too. Much of the first third of the film positions Deutch and Hauer-King’s two-thirds of the triangle as those friends who still play will-they-or-won’t-they past the point of it being cute. Suddenly at around 30, life’s happened, and it’s a lot harder for Olivia to just shrug off the fact that if she goes along with building a family with Connor, he’ll always be “the dude,” and she’ll always be the one who settled for the guy who impregnated two women and now has a quasi-second family. To the outside world, or a less empathetic film, she could be the punchline.

Fortunately, The Threesome avoids that sort of ickiness in favor of a wiser and wilier romantic comedy of the old school indie sort. This is a movie that embraces the messiness of life and suggests there is more to romance than that first kiss or the best laid plans for happily ever after.

Anchored by three compelling performances, especially from the reliably charismatic Deutch and a pleasantly beleaguered, Millennial Job routine by Hauer-King, much of the humor is derived from the energy these three inject into the proceedings. Early on it is a bit like a ‘60s sex comedy for the Tinder era, with all three parties playing types, albeit Connor and Olivia being the most defined in this regard. They’re characters perhaps slightly too old to be playing heartbreak games—the film opens at the wedding of Connor’s best friend Greg (a scene-stealing Jaboukie Young-White) where Olivia purposefully dips before Connor’s Best Man speech, leaving Hauer-King standing for a long beat in the evening’s shadow—but they’re attractive and affable. So they can away with bad decisions. Up to a point.

One suspects Cruz’s Jenny might agree. Introduced as a few crucial years younger than the other two, and as a bit of a blank canvas for Connor, Olivia, and the audience to make guesses about, when Jenny returns to the story to reveal she’s actually from a conservative and religious background, sympathies immediately scatter to the wind. You can empathize a lot with the happily expecting couple who discover their child-to-be will have a surprise sibling. But what about the scared young person who is asking for emotional support and instead walks into the hottest of messes? And just wait until her Christian parents ask to meet the father.

The further into the wilderness this triangle descends, the more nuance and humanity Hartigan’s vision quietly, and then loudly, unearths. The comedy is not (only) elicited from the fallout of questionable decisions, but how we as people, prospective partners, and even adults living in 21st century America circumnavigate the social pressures placed on them. For instance, a comedy set in the heartland of Little Rock, Arkansas can unfortunately get a lot of mileage, and pathos, out of a woman needing to consider an abortion that’s a 150-mile drive out of state. Conversely, what happens if Jenny and Olivia share the same OBGYN?

The Threesome is ultimately a gentle interrogation of what it means to be happy when life goes astray, and the sometimes irreconcilable differences which separate that perceived happiness from our realities.

The film raises some especially thorny questions by its third act that its subsequently typical rom-com ending underserves. Hartigan attempts to transcend his genre expectations, yet perhaps a bit like everyone of a certain age, still finally conforms to them. In this way, the possibilities presented by The Threesome‘s eyebrow-raising premise are more satisfying than the answers. But life can be like that. Just ask Olivia, Jenny, and Connor.

The Threesome premiered at SXSW on March 7.

The post The Threesome Review: Zoey Deutch Rom-Com Delights in the Morning After appeared first on Den of Geek.