I can always appreciate a good romantic comedy from the 90s, where people wore waist-high jeans with their shirts tucked in and over-sized leather jackets, not short of borrowing running shoes from the late 80s to complete the signature look. Men still slicked their hair back for that special date but weren't afraid to part a neat fringe in the middle on separate occasions, as if opening the curtains to the windows of their souls. A little (a lot) dramatic? This would eventually pave the way to a defining characteristic of the 90s, an era of overpopulated boy-bands pleading with girls around the world to quit playing games with their hearts - men who weren't afraid to let their hair down (so to speak), and ditch the mullet for some added empathy.
Women on the other hand, quite simply put, were "doing it for themselves". Married or single, women had more freedom to play with at this point than ever before, and were slowly but surely climbing the corporate ladder with a newfound sense of value and independence. Dresses shared cupboard space with mini-dresses, denim overalls and crop-tops. Sexy met its match in the mini-skirt while plaid in general became crucial and defining.
How the above ties in with 'Three of Hearts' begins with mainstream America's slow but evident growing stages of acceptance of gay and lesbian relationships in the early 90s. Although centred around the recent ending of a lesbian relationship, we never see any girl-on-girl action but that's okay because the relationship itself is successfully conveyed as being something very special and the essence is captured well. The acting was good and the humour not overly done like some 90s comedies and kids films like to do, but just a few things are left to questioning for me:
1) By omitting detail as to why Ellen broke up with Connie (other than "needing space"), I'm left wondering who to sympathise with more. 2) Is Connie intentionally trying to show Joe up with the plagiarised story issue and if not, how can she be so obviously obsessed with someone but not suspect Ellen to recognise the story when she is an expert in this field of literature, enough of an expert to lecture it to out-of-school-students? 3) Is it just about Ellen's classically modern beauty that makes Joe "want to be a better man?" and fall in love with her so suddenly because if it is, fair enough but if not, I cannot pinpoint exactly where the interest lies since Ellen doesn't do anything particularly spectacular to warrant such admiration from Joe so soon. In fact, I feel like Ellen's contribution to the story was far too underplayed and detached. This has nothing to do with Sherilyn though, who is beautiful enough to steal from the fact she is a great actress herself. 4) Who knew William Baldwin used to be so good looking?! (R must have mentioned it a dozen times and I agree!).
The ending, I found to be weird. Again Connie seems so sure of herself and advises Joe to not give up on Ellen - she knows Ellen will come back to him if he tried reaching out for her. If this is how the film is wanting to show that Connie gives Joe her blessing, I am sure it could have been done in better ways than to seemingly show Joe up... again. The weirdness in the ending seems to balance things out, both of them don't get the girl.
Great movie, otherwise.
M
