Two Girls and a Guy

I watched it last night and thought it was brilliant. Robert Downey is just stunning, and the final scene of the movie floored me. I''m not sure how to use the word pathos properly but that final scene exudes it. But before that the whole movie is an excellent examination of an actor who can't stop acting and the two girlfriends and mother he loves. Very witty and exciting to watch. I loved it.

Robert Downey's expression when he realizes that he's dealing with not one but both of his girlfriends is priceless. Other than that, this movie is just ridiculous. It's done in an improv style and it comes off as pretentious and an exercise in banality. The actors try to sound intelligent and come off sounding juvenile and whiny. Downey does what he can with the given material but Heather Graham and Natasha Wagner give excruciatingly bad performances here. The movie plays like a reading session for a film rather than polished. After this movie was over, I felt like a dog that had just been kicked. I might have even made the same sound a dog makes when it's kicked. An ex-girlfriend of mine told me that she met James Toback in a bookstore years ago and that he was a real weirdo. He asked her if he could watch her sleep and use that as a reference in writing her a screen role. Watching this movie, I completely believe the story. This guy obviously has issues and making a movie where a guy spends an hour talking his way out of a really bad situation just confirms that. There's one point where he actually fakes a suicide for the sole purpose of shock and.... look, see this movie. I'm not recommending it, it's just so utterly ridiculous that it begs to be made fun of. This is a real chock but it's funny chock. Rating: 1/2* out of *****.

Two Girls and a Guy consists of an extended conversation between three people; a guy played by Robert Downy, Jr and two girls played by Natasha Wagner and Heather Graham. Both young ladies have been Downey's lover over the past year, and through that time each believed they were his one and only. Unfortunately they both show up unannounced at his loft apartment to 'surprise' him and discover the charade. The discovery occurs in the first scene and what follows is a verbal confrontation between the three in which they discuss love, sex, commitment, truth, yadda-yadda.

I'm not knocking it; the movie is really very good. The three actors work very well together in what is sometimes fine improvisation. Definitely worth the rental when you are in the mood for something different.

Convict/thespian Robert Downey, Jr. tops his frenzied role in "Natural Born Killers" with another manic Tasmanian Devil-style performance. It's the funniest of the year, an actor's nightmare (how far do you go when you can do whatever you want?), but also the quintessential Downey, Jr. persona.

Heather Graham is my baby, she just doesn't know it yet. Just kidding--truth be told, she excels in the part of one of Downey Jr.'s girlfriends. Wagner nearly matches her in the role of the other.

Toback's direction is stagey (what else can you do with one set?), but his writing is on fire. Sometimes, you snag bits of the actor's riffs and laugh at what you can get your hands on. At other times, you sit back and let it flow over you--this is high-speed Jack Kerouac, coupled with Whit Stillman's keen ear for American bourgeois speech patterns. Wagner and Graham test each other on Downey Jr.'s lovemaking speeches, tying a noose for him before he even arrives, later Downey Jr. verbally abuses and repairs himself in his bathroom mirror--highlights of a dynamite script.

1998 was the year for actors and actresses, and many notables (and a few unknowns) did landmark work: Jim Carrey in "The Truman Show", Jane Horrocks in "Little Voice", Warren Beatty in "Bulworth", John Travolta and Kathy Bates in "Primary Colors", Roberto Benigni in "Life is Beautiful", Bill Pullman in "Zero Effect", and Robert Downey Jr. in this one. James Toback, who also penned the wretched (and similarly themed) "The Pick-Up Artist" in '87, is back on track. With "Bugsy", "The Gambler" and this film on his record, I eagerly anticipate his next picture.

To say that this movie is shallow, or unrealistic, is to miss the point. While it certainly has a lot to say about sex, and especially sexual fidelity, the point of the film is not that at all, but that concerns of sex are not truly the most important factors in a relationship. While loyalty and honesty certainly are, forgiveness is still a virtue, and lying about sex is not the same as lying about feelings. Though I, of course, do not agree with what the female characters in this movie did, at least the movie makes the oft-overlooked point that sex isn't everything, a point seldom made in movies, and often made in life. Though it is certainly not an exceptional movie, it is worth seeing, and an interesting look into the privileged status sex has attained in our modern society.