threesome (1994)
			director:  andrew fleming lara flynn boyle, josh charles stephen baldwin, alexis arquette martha gehman unfashionable observations rating: A-				Andrew Fleming’s Threesome is a post-modern coming-of-age movie.  Long-lost are the Holden Caulfields that embark on spontaneous journeys to New York City in search of themselves.  Instead, our modern age has come up with characters like those of Alex, Stuart, and Eddy—characters so misplaced in each others’ company that self-awareness is attained through inevitable comparison and conflict with each other.  Identity is no longer something that lies within oneself, waiting to be discovered.  It is something to be achieved through intense and ultimately tragic interactions with other people. We first meet the serious and studious Eddy (Josh Charles), whose first year in college places him in a dorm with a strange and obnoxious roommate, Stuart (Stephen Baldwin).  While Eddy tries to read Hawthorne, Stuart is binge-drinking, rocking out to loud music, and indulging in sexual escapades with random women. However, they both manage to find a unique equilibrium in their relationship so as to make their living situation feasible.  While Stuart teaches Eddy the art of making a good drink, Eddy happily writes Stuart’s English papers for him.  A harmonious give-and-take friendship sustains them. Shortly thereafter, Alex (Lara Flynn Boyle) arrives on the scene.  Eddy and Stuart had been living in a 3-person suite up until then.  Because Alex is mistaken for a guy in the school computer, she ends up being assigned to the extra bedroom.  At first, this seemingly sweet girl cannot stand either Eddy or Stuart, but especially Stuart.  She is unhappy that the school administration has messed up her housing, and she is upset that an inconsiderate pig like Stuart keeps eating her yogurt!  Eventually, they get used to each other’s company, and indeed become almost exclusive friends.  Only they understand each other’s jokes, and the rest of the world is superfluous.  When each of them attempts to bring another person into the circle, the new person ends up either humiliated or threatened by the aggressiveness of the friendship between the three.  Because this is a movie about college life, sexual tension inevitably becomes the centerpiece of the three's  relationship.  In an interesting twist, we discover that Alex is sexually attracted to Eddy, who is sexually attracted to Stuart, who is sexually attracted to Alex.  In other words, we have the perfect story for a tragedy of Shakespearean proportions! Threesome is certainly a movie about sexual awakening, but it is always about something more than that.  Sex seems to be the vehicle for connection and discovery, but the ultimate conflict is not a sexual one.  Rather, this movie contemplates the consequences of laying oneself totally bare before another—spiritually, emotionally, and physically.  Eddy, Stuart, and Alex create a relationship in which it is possible for all three of them to do just that.  But the consequences of such a seemingly liberating relationship are rarely ever readily apparent or predictable. Nietzsche once said that “he who makes no secret of himself, enrages.”  That is, utter self-exposure (spiritual, emotional, and physical) will inevitably lead to conflict with others, for our inner thoughts and feelings are rarely fit for expression or action.  So much reason have we for fearing our own nakedness.  Andrew Fleming’s little tragi-comedy teaches us that such nakedness, although necessary for self-realization, is above all a process of conflict, loss, and pain, for even the most enlightened friend cannot hope to be prepared for the implications of our unbridled authenticity. I’d give Andrew Fleming’s Threesome an A-.
	Unfashionable Observations © 2003