THREE OF HEARTS: A POSTMODERN FAMILY
Directed by: Susan Kaplan.
Produced by: Sarie Horowitz & Susan Kaplan.
Director of Photography: Sarah Cawley, et al.
Edited by: Toby Shimin.
Music by: Ross Levinson.
Released by: THINKFilm.
Country of Origin: USA. 97 min. Not Rated.

As a sophomore at NYU, Steven met Sam - eight years his senior - and they quickly became lovers. Years later, feeling "something was missing," they considered adding a third partner to their relationship - a woman. Sam approached one of his coworkers, 19-year-old Samantha, a theater major and high school valedictorian. Throughout the documentary, their initiative comes across as intellectually driven, rather than impulsively sexual. Together the three become parents to a daughter, not initially knowing which partner is the biological father.

By the time director Susan Kaplan began filming her intriguing and ultimately moving film, the trio had been together for over five years. Her footage spans eight years, beginning in the mid-'90s and includes the trio's home videos from the late '80s. You can tell the chronology by Sam's receding hair line and Steven's changing hair style. Almost everything is caught on camera, including Samantha's pregnancy test and Sam and Steven's marriage proposal, which they made in unison to Samantha in the middle of her birthday party. Legally, she's married to Sam. (To her East Indian parents, Steven is referred to as Sam's cousin).

In the softball interviews, all three come across as articulate and thoughtful, effusing their love for one another. The emotive Sam is as forthcoming as Steven is carefully guarded. The former takes center stage, revealing the most. The viewer can't help but be drawn in, especially because of Sam and Samantha's uninhibited vulnerability. It does appear, though, that all three strive to convince the viewer their relationship is on par with other hetero- or homosexual relationships. Far from voyeuristic, the camera and questions are left outside the bedroom, but one wishes the interviews were more probing. For example, the fact the threesome began in late '80s New York, during the height of the AIDS epidemic, is not mentioned. Could a straight woman have been chosen as a safe sexual alternative, without the added tension of a third gay man?

At times Three of Hearts is like watching someone's home movies, where all the excitement - the fights and accidents - are left out. What is left unsaid becomes the most revealing. Despite the three's affrimations, this three-way marriage appears too good to be true. In the third act, the gloves come off. The marriage implodes - and not amicably. Finally, many of the questions that must have risen in the viewer's head are indirectly answered. What was once lovingly restrained for the cameras comes out spontaneously. As they enter their late thirties or early forties, the outcome for all three is a delayed coming of age, one not without sadness. Kent Turner
October 19, 2005