Customer Reviews

Three to Tango (Widescreen/Full Screen)

5 star:		(22)
4 star:		(15)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Synopsis:
Oscar Novak (Matthew Perry) is an up and coming architect, bidding with his partner (Oliver Platt) for a project to renovate a classic Chicago landmark. Business Tycoon Charles Newmann (Dylan McDermott), the man seeking the bids, mistakenly comes to believe that Oscar is gay and asks him to babysit his mistress (Neve Campbell) for him. With his business on the line, he agrees to do it, but even in agreeing, he must now pretend to prefer a sexual preference that he does not. Things go from bad to worse when he falls for the tycoon's Mistress.

About the Movie:
This is not a film for social conservatives. With homosexuality having become one of the major hot topics in America, this film proves how a movie can have as much a social agenda as a church can..

One interesting thing to point out about this film is how it uses Mathew Perry's character Oscar Novak to mirror the plight of closeted homosexuals. The Amazon Editorial Review (by Mark Engleheart) completely missed the point of the movie in saying that Novak's supposed gayness is treated simply as "an oppressive burden."

Social standing, job security and even friendships hang in the balance because of Novak's supposed sexual orientation. The film's point is that this is a burden that many homosexuals feel they have to deal with. In a sense Novak is now forced to deal with the same issues that gays deal with by having to "be in the closet" about being straight. If anything, the movie advocates openness and tolerance, something Novak learns about first hand. It's the classic, "walking in another man's shoes" satire.

Ultimately, Three to Tango is a film that pretends to be a romantic comedy but is really a obvious endeavor to promote an image of homosexuality as "normal" through genuinely humorous satire. In an era of political correctness, this is the ultimate film for it. It presents a perfect politically correct image of homosexuality, even going so far as to make it seem like the ideal to strive for. Homosexuals are the good guys, sensitive, understanding, and open, while straight men are losers, who cheat on their wives and are emotionally detached and insensitive.

Three to Tango does it job very well, playing on the audience's emotional output, and challenging their conventions with uneasy situations (as many movies do) to get the audience to agree with the premise.

Matthew Perry's character gets into his situation and gains his love interest precisely because he fits the stereotypical homosexual image (the one of the sensitive well-dressed male without the lisp and limp wrist). The movie seems to say that the homosexual image is the one to strive for, because Perry, a straight man fits it so perfectly and finds happiness with a beautiful woman in the end as a result.

Meanwhile, the quasi bad guy, Dylan McDermott's character, Charles Newmann, is a caricature of a straight man, insensitive, an adulterer, a manly man, who's possessive, jealous, selfish and vindictive. He's over the top and unlikable, precisely because he was written to be that way. McDermott plays the role to the T, which provides a perfect counterpoint to the film's overall portrayal of the straight/gay issue.

The end statement is that sexual orientation should not be the issue, it should be your feelings and who you are.

In all honesty, it's hard not to like this film at least on some level, even if you don't agree with the message that it is preaching. Matthew Perry is an expert at filling out the role of a bewildered man thrown into unexpected and peculiar situations with both humor and sensitivity. He's a wonderful and charming comic actor, and it shows. Neve Campbell is cute as his co-star, and there are a lot of comic moments that are laugh out loud funny.

Of course, a lot of the humor comes directly from Oscar being put in the position of a straight man dealing with being thought of as gay, with some of the humor being overtly sexual in nature. People who disagree with the homosexual lifestyle will understandably dislike this film, because it is openly pro-gay and presents the issue in an extremely one-sided manner.

About the DVD:
Three to Tango comes in a cardboard snap case on a double-sided DVD with both fullscreen and Widescreen versions of the film in Dolby Digital 5.1 sound. The image and sound are pretty good for a budget DVD, with only a little film grain or artifacts. The movie is translated into French and has English and French subtitles. One wonders when the big studios will figure out that Spanish is the second most commonly spoken language on the North American continent.

As far as special features, this one has what appears to be something that is becoming standard on Warner Brothers budget DVD releases. They include the theatrical trailer for the film and a series of textual production notes that provide background on the movie. They're interesting to read, but not much as far as special features go. This release even skimps on the actor bios that usually provided with most budget releases.

Bottom Line:
A comedic film with a clear social message to provide to its audience that will undoubtedly turn away some because of it. A decent (depending on social views) movie on a standard DVD release. 3 stars.

The editorial review of this movie mentioned that the film was lessened by the reaction to the situation of Matthew Perry's character having to pretend to be gay. The writer suggested that the issue of his mistaken homosexuality was treated as a 'burden'. This movie never implied anything negative about homosexuality. If anything, the opposite is most certainly true. The situation was difficult because Perry was pretending to be something he wasn't. That was the point, to express from a straight person's point of view what gays go through every day of their lives. The overlying theme of this movie is that everyone has a right to be proud of who they are.

This movie has 'Matthew Perry vehicle' written all over it (which is not a bad thing--I like Matthew Perry). Thank goodness someone had the foresight to include talented Canadian beauty Neve Campbell, (obviously) one of my favorite actors, on the vehicle. She TOTALLY carries the movie wherever Perry fails to make the cut. Perry and Campbell have WONDERFUL chemistry. There are a few surprises in this movie that definitely make it unique. I have to say, though, that I could have completely done without the interplay between Campbell's character and her married lover. Fortunately, that didn't compromise the charm of this tasty romantic tale, which has become one of my all-time favorite romantic comedies. I definitely recommend making a copy of this your own.

HI I'm from Germany and there there title of this film is "Ein Date zu dritt". And I like it very much, because I like Friends and also Matthew Perry. He`s so sweet... Well, the movie is great and i give it 5 *****

I'm surprised about how much I liked this DVD. Actually I didn't expect too much of it after all the critics, but it is really fun and entertaining. All actors are doing great work and the story is really nice. Matthew Perry proves to be more than "just a TV Star". Hopefully we will see him in much more cinema movies !

I'm sure I've seen worse movies than this but for the life of me I just can't think of one at the moment. Doesn't your fridge need defrosting? Anything, absolutely anything is better than this!

I like off-beat movies! Some of my favorites are "Two Ninas", "Office Space", and "Three To Tango". These are a small productions with lesser known actors that are very very good. "Three To Tango" is one of those low profile but excellent movies that is under appreciated. Matthew Perry plays a talented architect who pretends to be gay in order to land a big contract. His firm lands the contract but he also is intrusted to keep an eye on his married employer's girl friend, played by Neve Campbell. You guessed it, he falls in love with the girl friend. Hiding his true feelings is both funny and touching. If you're not homophobic, I highly recommend this movie!

Of course if you don't, you will absolutely loathe and despise this film. I love his twisted, neurotic characters and brilliant physical comedy, but some people find it too lowbrow. That's fine.

This film is excellent in parts. It does drag in some, but the funny parts more than overcome that. All too often, sensitive men who are tidy and can cook are pegged as homosexual, and it's interesting to see someone in that situation who doesn't recoil in horror due to his homophobia. Perry's character was not homophobic at all...he just simply was not gay.

In a nutshell, the plot is this: Perry and his business partner pitch an architectural project to a wealthy businessman. The businessman's secretary thinks Perry and his business partner are gay and this is where the rubber meets the road. The businessman asks Perry to spy on his mistress and predictably, Perry falls in love with her. Both Campbell and Perry played the underlying frustration angle well, and the film builds to a satisfying, if predictable, climax. Personally, I thought it was very funny, though I understand not everyone will like it.

somehow this movie got missed and didn't do too well at theatres or on video. the one thing i have noticed is it seems to be on a lots of "favorite movie" lists. All the acting in this is top notch and this movie is hilarious in parts. This is a very good romantic comedy and if you are the type that likes romantic comedies like me then you'll really like this. There's a few scenes in this movie i absolutely love and are so romantic it just makes you sigh. Matthew Perry is so excellent in this and does comedy really well but everyone knows that because of friends, he really shines here away from his "friends" cast members. It seems that he and Neve Campbell have a real chemistry in this movie. Oliver Platt really makes this movies work and he's very good in this. it's a really good flim and it's entertaining.

This movie was just funny and sweet throughout. Although the viewer may get frustrated a few times everything cools down with random comedy and a sweet chemistry between Perry and Campbell.