Three to Tango (1999)

Director:

Damon Santostefano

Writers (WGA):

Rodney Patrick Vaccaro (story)
Rodney Patrick Vaccaro (screenplay) ...

Release Date:

22 October 1999 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy | Romance

Tagline:

All's fair in the war of love.

Plot:

A rich businessman, Dylan McDermott, mistakenly believes that Matthew Perry, who is bidding on a $90 million restoration contract...

Plot Keywords:

Architect | Love | Closeted Homosexual | Reference To The Buddha | Football Player

Cast

Matthew Perry	...	Oscar Novak
Neve Campbell	...	Amy Post
Dylan McDermott	...	Charles Newman
Oliver Platt	...	Peter Steinberg
Cylk Cozart	...	Kevin Cartwright
John C. McGinley	...	Strauss
Bob Balaban	...	Decker
Deborah Rush	...	Lenore
Kelly Rowan	...	Olivia Newman
Rick Gomez	...	Rick
Patrick Van Horn	...	Zack
David Ramsey	...	Bill
Kent Staines	...	Gallery Owner
Ho Chow	...	Cabbie
Michael Proudfoot	...	Diner Waiter

MPAA:

Rated PG-13 for sex-related situations and language.

Runtime:

98 min

Country:

Australia | USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

DTS | Dolby Digital | SDDS

Certification:

Spain:13 | Australia:M | Iceland:L | Singapore:M18 (re-rating) | Singapore:R(A) | South Korea:15 | Argentina:13 | Chile:14 | Finland:S | France:U | Germany:12 | Netherlands:12 | New Zealand:M | Norway:A | Sweden:Btl | UK:12 | USA:PG-13 | Philippines:PG-13

Filming Locations:

Chicago, Illinois, USA

Company:

Warner Bros. Pictures

Trivia:

Matthew Perry plays Oscar Novak. The film he and Neve Campbell watches on TV stars Kim Novak.

Goofs:

Continuity: In the scene at Amy's apartment, Oscar serves champagne in two glasses: one green and one crystaline. When Amy gets out of the shower, Oscar hands her the green glass. But in the next shot, when Amy and Oscar make a toast and lift their glasses, the glasses have been switched: Oscar holds the green glass and Amy the crystaline one.

Quotes:

[Standing outside the cafe, Oscar is looking very ill]
Amy: Oh, are you okay?
Oscar Novak: Mouth... watering.
Amy: God, I knew that Tuna Melt tasted funny. I'm lucky, I can eat just about anything. Know why? Cause my mother was a horrible cook. She used to make this thing that smelled like a wet dog and old tennis shoes and...
[Oscar retches]
Amy: Oh, sorry.
Oscar Novak: Would you excuse me for a second?
Oscar Novak: [Oscar kneels over and is violently sick] Boy that felt good!
Amy: Don't worry you'll be alright in a minute.
[Amy pauses then kneels over and is sick as well]
[...]

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Spring Breakdown (2009)

Soundtrack:

I Wanna Rock A/K/A (Everytime I Hear) That Mellow Saxophone

Three to What?

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.