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| Directed by Damon Santostefano; Starring Matthew Perry, Neve Campbell, Dylan McDermott, Oliver Platt, Bob Balaban, John C. McGinley, Cylk Cozart, Kelly Rowan |
Three to Tango is one of those romantic comedies that every critic sees way too often. Maybe that is who critics become so cynical about love, because we see it done the same way time and again on the big screen. There is the one woman everyone wants, and the two men she must choose from. The reason this worked for Truffaut’s Jules and Jim is that both males were highly likable characters and whom you would want Jeanne Moreau to turn out with depended on what type of person you were. On the other hand, Three to Tango has the good guy and the bad guy. There is no question of who we are supposed to wish the girl to, we are told in the written material as we walk in the film. The print ads might as well just say “Let’s hope Matthew Perry gets the girl and not that guy from The Practice.”
Not only are they divided on the difference of personality, but the greatest way to find the romantic protagonist: poverty. The fact that the McDermott character is rich just screams to the audience that he is a bad man. As much as I hate to admit it, at least Simply Irresistible made the rich guy the good guy. The architect that must act gay to win the job from the McDermott character and inadvertently the love of Campbell is a shoo-in for good guy simply because he needs money (though that rather large New York apartment he maintains on his own costs more than we are lead to believe that he earns in a given year.
Despite this I did not think that Three to Tango was terrible, just a little convoluted and pushed. The characters were too flat and the performances were less than enthralling. McDermott seemed to have just been reading his lines. The story was interesting but not the best in the world. A slight film, but not a terrible one.
