Three to Tango (1999)

It takes Three To Tango. So why the rock and roll, not tango, sequence during the starting credits? These credits are James Bondish; silhouettes, but without tango music; a very entertaining sequence in fact, but they point to the bits and pieces nature of Three To Tango. It's a film in parts.

But some of the parts are downright funny.

Matthew Perry (Friends) plays Oscar an architect who with his gay partner Peter (Oliver Platt , Funny Bones) are after a contract to build some swank building for slime ball rich guy Charles (Dylan McDermott).

Charles is two timing his wife with Amy (Neve Campbell, Scream) and thinking that Oscar is gay like Peter, Charles asks Oscar to baby sit Amy because he's fearful of Amy running off with an old boyfriend of hers.

Of course Oscar and Amy fall in love but Oscar has to pretend he's gay to Amy to keep the contract with Charles, and this keeps the laughs rolling.

For instance Amy gets to confide with Oscar about the sorts of girly things women apparently share with gay men. He also has to deal with the men now attracted to him because they think he's gay.

Hollywood has an uneasy relationship with homosexuality. These days its common to have the comical gay friend or two mincing about in mainstream films (As Good As It Gets, Beverley Hills Cop and many others).

These personalties are added almost strictly for laughs and they are sometimes genuinely amusing but a good dose of homophopia is necessary to really enjoy Three To Tango.

Those not inclined to hate those "batting for the other side" will be a bit under awed by many of the scenes in this film but there's nothing new about that.

Still these sorts of movies may well be seen to be an important step in the true "coming out" of this minority group on the big screen. Judging though by the ill tuned guffaws on air at the screening I attended there's a long way to go as yet.

There are often two or three gags going on at once in any case. This film takes the bird shot approach to comedy. Let off a blast of jokes all at once and one or two might hit their target.

But still the two central characters, Amy and Oscar, do develop some credibility which isn't surprising since they're the only ones who aren't vapid stereotypes.

That might have been not so easy though. I was often still tempted to imagine death mask, hooded, Scream murderers lunging out on the shadows with big knives at Neve Campbell. But she has successfully transcended that sort of typecasting in this film.

Her hair is cut shorter and she's determinably bubbly, very different to the haunted, hunted character she plays in the Scream films.

Mathew Perry like Campbell is very likeable in what is sometimes an awkward comedy romance, with a gay fear subplot.

But overwhelmingly, Three To Tango is often played strictly for fun. Oscar rushes through a market. Instead of knocking over a fruit cart, standard fare for the movies, about six live ducks are thrown at him. Huh! But that was different. And funny.