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Threesome

No matter how silly its title and premise, 1994's Threesome is — in it's own modest way — an engaging coming of age comedy. Drama student Alex (Lara Flynn Boyle), business major Stuart (Stephen Baldwin) and film student Eddy (Josh Charles) are assigned a dorm room together because the computer system mistakes Alex for a man. Since no one's willing to move out, the three decide to wait out the year. Differences aside, all three get along exceptionally well and end up spending all their time together, forcing sexual tensions to develop as Alex gets a crush on Eddy, Eddy gets a crush on Stuart, and Stuart wants to nail Alex. As the three grow closer — and since all their activities are sexually tinged — both men end up sleeping with Alex, leading all three feeling comfortable enough to engage in what the title leads us to believe they will. As with all movies that take place in college, you have to accept the standard falsities: Everyone who is supposedly in the 18-22 year old age group look about ten years older, dorm rooms are more like presidential suites than closets, and characters are never as self-conscious as normal 18-22 year olds are. Putting those complaints aside, Threesome is about people exploring their sexuality at a young age, and the chemistry of the actors makes it appealing with all three leads believably confused and turned on — they make it feel real. Director Andrew Fleming based the film on autobiographical events, but because of the comic elements the film never gets too dark or self important, with the blond Baldwin — surprisingly — stealing the show as the comic relief ("Sex is like pizza: Even when it's bad, it's still pretty good.") Columbia TriStar's DVD offers a clean anamorphic transfer (1.85:1) on one side, and pan-and-scan on the other, with audio in Dolby 2.0 Surround. Includes a frank audio commentary by Fleming in which he outs himself, an alternate ending with optional commentary, and two bonus trailers (but not one for the film itself). Keep-case
—DSH


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