Three to Tango
 | This article needs additional citations for verification. (October 2009) |
| Three to Tango | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Directed by | Damon Santostefano |
| Written by | Rodney Patrick Vaccaro |
| Produced by | Lawrence Abramson Bruce Berman John M. Eckert Bobby Newmyer Susan E. Novick Keri Selig Jeffrey Silver Bettina Sofia Viviano |
| Starring | Matthew Perry Neve Campbell Dylan McDermott Oliver Platt Cylk Cozart |
| Edited by | Stephen Semel |
| Music by | Graeme Revell |
Production company | |
| Distributed by | Warner Bros. Roadshow Entertainment (Australia & New Zealand)[1] |
Release date | October 22, 1999 |
Running time | 98 minutes |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $20 million |
| Box office | $10,570,375[2] |
Three to Tango is a 1999 American romantic comedy film starring Matthew Perry, Neve Campbell, Dylan McDermott and Oliver Platt.
Plot
Architects Oscar Novak (Perry) and Peter Steinberg (Platt) have just landed a career-making opportunity to design of a multimillion dollar cultural center for wealthy businessman Charles Newman (McDermott). In a ploy for publicity, Newman has pitched Oscar and Peter in a neck-and-neck competition with their archrivals and former colleagues, the hugely successful Decker and Strauss (Bob Balaban and John C. McGinley). When Newman meets Oscar and Peter, he assumes that they are lovers, even though Oscar is straight. (Peter is in fact gay, but his relationship with Oscar is strictly platonic.) Under the mistaken impression that Oscar is gay, he asks Oscar to keep an eye on his mistress Amy (Campbell) and make sure that she doesn't talk to his wife. Oscar falls for Amy virtually on sight, but she thinks he's gay. He is forced to maintain the charade to avoid getting into trouble with Newman, and losing the commission.
Matters become complicated when a news article about Oscar and Peter's supposed relationship is published in a newspaper, leaving Oscar in the increasingly frustrating position of having to fend off advances from various gay men while convincing his friends and family that he is simply pretending to be gay. Amy even sets him up on a date with her ex-boyfriend, football player Kevin Cartwright (Cylk Cozart), but Oscar manages to defuse the situation by saying that he's in love with someone else. Despite the embarrassing misconceptions, Oscar forms a close bond with Amy as they continue to spend time together-to the extent that Amy moves in with him after she is kicked out of her apartment. At the final presentation for the cultural center, Oscar and Peter receive the commission, but Oscar is simultaneously told that he has won the award for Gay Professional Man of the Year, with Newman deciding that he will reveal his decision after the ceremony.
After an awkward meeting between Amy and Newman's wife at the party, she and Oscar go to a bar. Amy leaves in frustration after she nearly kisses him, prompting a brief argument between her and Oscar where Oscar states that her relationship with Newman has no future. After spending the day alone, Oscar attends the award ceremony for Gay Professional Man of the Year. Although he initially continues his charade, while looking out at the people before him, he instead makes a passionate speech about how he admires all the men and women here who were able to tell the truth to their families about how they feel, ending the speech by "coming out of the closet" as he admits that he's straight and in love with Amy. As he is applauded for having the courage to admit the truth, he runs after Amy, only for her to punch both him and Newman and storming out. Peter then awkwardly accepts the prize that comes with the award: a date with Kevin. However, as Oscar sits in a restaurant where he and Amy ate together on the night they met, Amy comes to see him. She says that she loves him too, and they kiss.
In a post-credit sequence, Newman's wife Olivia (Kelly Rowan) convinces him to go with Oscar and Peter's design, revealing that she knew about him and Amy and informing him bluntly that Oscar and Peter did the better job.
Cast and characters
- Matthew Perry as Oscar Novak
- Neve Campbell as Amy Post
- Dylan McDermott as Charles Newman
- Oliver Platt as Peter Steinberg
- Cylk Cozart as Kevin Cartwright
Other characters
- John C. McGinley as Strauss
- Bob Balaban as Decker
- Deborah Rush as Lenore
- Kelly Rowan as Olivia Newman
- Rick Gomez as Rick
- Patrick Van Horn as Zack
- David Ramsey as Bill
- Barbara Gordon as Jenny Novak
- Roger Dunn as Edward Novak
Reception
Rotten Tomatoes gives the film a rating of 29% based on 63 reviews.[3]
References
- ^ "Film Distribution - Village Roadshow Limited". Village Roadshow Pictures. 2014-02-11. Retrieved 2014-02-11.
- ^ "Three to Tango at Box Office Mojo". Retrieved 2010-09-29.
- ^ Three to Tango at Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved 2009-10-27.