FILM-FORWARD.COMReviews of Recent Independent, Foreign, & Documentary Films in Theaters and DVD/Home Video
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
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