The Threesome

On my first day living in Chicago, I watched Julia Roberts classic Chicago-set romcom My Best Friend’s Wedding. It is obvious why Julia has been crowned the queen of the 90s romcom: there is an electric energy and a charm to her that makes the viewer fall in love with her character at the same time her love interest is. Any actor can star in a romcom, but it takes a special aura to be a true romcom star. There are not too many modern romcom stars these days, as some great actors have led romcoms, but few have that mystifying allure or magnetizing chemistry. And when I say few, I refer to the stars of 2018’s Set It Up, Glen Powell and Zoey Deutch.

Everyone knows that Glen Powell is the most charming man in Hollywood right now; he has an Old Hollywood charisma to him that has led him to carry every film he has been in. But what not everyone knows is that Zoey Deutch is the most charming woman in Hollywood right now. She has not been given the most roles, but she has a bubbly, energetic personality that really is not seen anymore. If someone asked me who the modern romcom star is, who this era’s Julia Roberts is, I would answer Zoey Deutch without hesitation. Naturally, I was overjoyed to learn that Zoey Deutch was the lead of a new romcom, Chad Hartigan’s The Threesome. Yet that rush cannot compare to the joy I felt leaving the theater, accompanied with the knowledge that The Threesome is fantastic and that Zoey Deutch is a bonafide star. 

Deutch is not technically the lead, as that title belongs to Jonah Hauer-King (The Little Mermaid). He plays an audio engineer named Connor who finds himself in a truly unique situation. The titular threesome between Connor, Olivia (Zoey Deutch), and Jenny (Ruby Cruz) happens within the first ten minutes of the film. Olivia and Connor are old friends, while Jenny is a girl that they just happen to pick up at a bar. The truly unique situation Connor finds himself in is when both Olivia (who is now his girlfriend) and Jenny (whom he has not talked to since) both become pregnant. 

It sounds a bit like a male fantasy, as there is surely no shortage of men out there who dream of sleeping with two women and them both getting pregnant. However, Hartigan makes this as unsexy and as messy as he can. Even the threesome itself is deeply awkward, as these are just three young people trying something they have never tried before. 

Now, the other thing I didn’t say about Zoey Deutch is that she is fantastic at playing a complete and utter bitch. Olivia is, in no ambiguous terms, a total bitch. After realizing she wants kids with Connor, Olivia tries to pressure Jenny into aborting the baby. But due to Jenny’s strongly religious and conservative parents, she is unable to. This revelation has Olivia flip-flopping between staying with Connor and keeping the child and breaking up with him and getting an abortion. 

The film is as messy as it sounds, but for good reason. There is no dream world where this scenario is not messy. On what planet could you get two women pregnant and have it all be smooth sailing? It is all made worse by how awful each of these characters are. Olivia is a selfish asshole who only wants what’s best for herself, Connor is a confused man-whore who doesn’t actually care about Jenny, and Jenny is a manipulative liar who refuses to tell her parents that Connor isn’t her boyfriend. But it also feels like so many recent movies stray away from making characters that are awful human beings for fear of turning people off from the movie. Seeing three realistically messy people figure out how messy the world of dating is is super refreshing. There is no happily-ever-after in this scenario, as we are left with two unwanted children and at least one girl who is heartbroken. To sanitize the film, to make it where all three people involved end up happily in love with no lingering fears, would be to remove what Hartigan and writer Ethan Ogilby want to say to begin with. They want to make a statement about how the modern obsession with overindulgence combined with a lack of caring about the feelings of others is ultimately harmful to all involved. If Connor had stopped and thought about Jenny for once, they would not be in this situation. If Olivia had stopped and thought about Connor for once, they would not be in this situation. But it’s 2025, and modern dating leads to confusion and messiness that brings out the worst in everyone involved. 

It is by making these three characters truly awful at their core that makes the film feel like something real and not like every direct-to-streaming romcom we have seen recently. You are watching three young, authentic people from Arkansas ruining each other's lives for love and sex. You know why all three people fell for each other. All of them are endearing in their own twisted way, but you also want them to never speak to each other again. It feels like every relationship I have either been in or seen my friends in. 

But as much as I adore all three actors in these roles, the sheer charm of Deutch and Cruz also serves to its detriment. Olivia and Jenny are slightly underwritten in favor of spending more time on Connor. We learn the life of Connor’s best friend (Jaboukie Young-White) and see everything through Connor’s lens, but when he’s not on-screen, we still don’t learn anything about the women. It is not enough of a problem that it makes me dislike the movie, but it is ultimately frustrating when the ending almost practically removes Jenny from the equation. The film is told through the chapters of each stage of pregnancy, but I think it would have been more effective if each chapter spotlighted a different character. At the end of the day, there is no amount of Zoey Deutch a movie can have that is too much.

2025 has given us no shortage of romantic comedies about the pitfalls of modern romance and how it harms relationships told through the fringe of a love triangle where the main woman has fierce bangs. Materialists is good and features an amazing Chris Evans monologue, but what I found in The Threesome is everything I wanted from Materialists. We are all absolute disasters and are ruining everyone’s lives to find love, but that just might be what we’re meant to do. 

8.5/10