Three of Hearts

Though fashioned like an old-time screwball comedy, Three of Hearts' presentation of its central love triangle is thoroughly contemporary. A rejected lover hires an “escort” to woo and then break the enamorata's heart which, in theory, will send the loved one scurrying back to the arms of the rejected lover. Connie (Lynch) is the rejected lover whose live-in, bisexual girlfriend Ellen (Fenn) leaves her in order to “find her own space.” Aside from suffering a galloping case of heartbreak, Connie is in the lurch as to what to do about her sister's impending Polish wedding. Connie had chosen that occasion to come out to her family and is at a loss for a dramatic gesture. With no girlfriend and no date, Connie hires a male escort named Joe (Baldwin) whose motto is: “Any woman. Any time. Any place. Guaranteed.” An easy friendship is born between Connie and Joe and thus the scheme for winning back Ellen is hatched. Before long, Joe undergoes a change of heart and finds himself also falling in love with Ellen. That none of these characters could have existed in the comedies of previous decades is part of Three of Hearts' charm. The opening sequence in which Ellen ditches Connie in the middle of Washington Square Park sets the stage for the film's comfortable treatment of its characters' sexual identities. Whether lesbian, bisexual or male escort/prostitute, Three of Hearts, uncharacteristically for a commercial movie, makes little editorial comment about its characters' lifestyles. True, a subplot reveals some of the more criminal aspects of Joe's work and Strickland's appearances as Joe's rich, steady client take an ugly turn in their portrait of a sexually starved, rapacious, vengeful, older, society matron. And both Lynch and Fenn's physical appearances seem somewhat toned down and deliberately restrained. (Even as a zoned-out junkie in Drugstore Cowboy Lynch had more natural beauty and glamour.) Still, this is largely an actors' movie and director Bogayevicz (Anna) is certainly an actors' director. Both Lynch and Baldwin shine in this comedy, though Fenn's performance as everybody's queen of hearts never reaches an equal plateau. Baldwin exudes a confidence and handsome stud quality that makes the audience willingly believe his character's boasts, a difficult task at best. Since Three of Hearts' only real narrative tension comes from our curiosity about which lover Ellen will ultimately choose, the movie's unconventional resolution is also a nice twist. Three of Hearts puts an interesting, if not always successful, new spin on the old chestnuts of romantic film comedy.