{"id":27370,"date":"2025-09-04T09:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-09-04T16:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/?p=27370"},"modified":"2025-09-02T18:11:02","modified_gmt":"2025-09-03T01:11:02","slug":"review-the-threesome","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/review-the-threesome\/","title":{"rendered":"Review: The Threesome<\/i>"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

At first, The Threesome<\/em> plays like a straight male fantasy of the sex act of the title. A guy gets doubly lucky, simultaneously scoring with both his long-time crush\/one-time fling and an equally hot woman he just met. Then things supposedly get real when they both tell him they\u2019re pregnant. You\u2019d think reality would set in with those revelations, but The Threesome<\/em> still feels like it\u2019s simply some dude\u2019s daydream about what would happen if two women would want him at the same time. I\u2019m perhaps being a little reductive about this movie that has some charming moments and is theoretically what I\u2019ve been asking for \u2014 more big screen rom-coms, please! \u2014 but it kinda feels like I wished on a monkey\u2019s paw, and this is all I got. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In The Threesome<\/em>, both the rom- and the -com elements feel lacking \u2014 despite the efforts of a mostly strong cast and a bloopers reel in the final credits, which feels like the wrong fit for the 110 minutes of dramedy that preceded it. Director Chad Hartigan is known for making thoughtful, relationship-driven indies like Little Fish<\/em>, Morris from America<\/em>, and This Is Martin Bonner<\/em>. While The Threesome<\/em> is more comical by nature, this isn\u2019t the type of movie that necessitates a collection of mildly funny mess-ups. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The romance and comedy might have worked better if it weren\u2019t for Connor Blake (the man at the center of the love triangle) and Jonah Hauer-King (the actor who plays him). Connor is mildly sensitive and blandly attractive, the type of young guy that plays the guitar and makes a playlist for an abortion roadtrip. It\u2019s easy to see why Olivia (Zoey Deutch) is initially ambivalent when he shows up at the Little Rock restaurant where she works. She\u2019s bristly and bang-y (I\u2019m talking about her excellent haircut, you perverts), but she\u2019s intrigued when she sees Connor talking to Jenny (Ruby Cruz), a very cute customer. After some flirting and dancing at a second location, all three head back to Connor\u2019s place, where there’s an inevitable game of Truth or Dare and an equally inevitable (given the title) threesome. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

From there, The Threesome<\/em> sheds light on the complexity of modern coupling (especially when there\u2019s a pregnancy or two involved), largely focusing on Connor with some scenes sharing Olivia\u2019s experience. Jenny feels more like the third wheel in both their relationship and in Ethan Ogilby\u2019s script. Yet because Connor is such an uninteresting, selfish character played by an equally dull actor, it\u2019s hard to want him to end up with either woman. No one\u2019s really well developed in The Threesome<\/em>, but both Deutch and Cruz flesh out their characters through nuanced performances that make them feel like real people \u2014 and real people who deserve so much better than this very basic guy. Connor\u2019s gay best friend, Greg (Jaboukie Young-White), may mostly be there as comic relief, which he provides thanks to the delightfully dry delivery of Young-White. However, even he feels like more of a person than Connor, who we\u2019re ostensibly rooting for. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

With multiple pregnancies where women have to make life-changing decisions, The Threesome<\/em> says all the right things to seem pro-choice, and it is on the surface. There\u2019s a throwaway line lamenting how you can\u2019t have an abortion in Arkansas and so you have to travel across state lines to have a quick medical procedure. Yet there\u2019s something weirdly conservative about it all, particularly in how Connor attempts to persuade both women on whether they should have the baby or not (depending on how he feels about each one and how it impacts his life). It\u2019s a symptom of the movie\u2019s larger problem; Connor\u2014its weakest character played by its weakest performer\u2014feels like the only one who is supposed to matter here, with both Olivia and Jenny only seeming to exist in connection to him. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

C<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

“The Threesome” is in theaters Friday. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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