Review: Trois (2000)
Review by Scott Hunt Visit me at Movie Hunt http://netdirect.net/~hunt/index.html)
Cast: Gary Dourdan, Gretchen Palmer, Kenya Moore, Chrystale Wilson, Bryce Wilson, Soloman K. Smith, Thom Byrd Director: Rob Hardy Writer: Rob Hardy
Rating: Off Target (1 out of 4 stars)
For a film touted as exploring relationships and Black sexuality, Trois is surprisingly tame. Despite it's lurid subject matter and it's passing nod to Fatal Attraction, it moves along with flat, uninspired dialogue as it sets up a surprising climax that tries mightily to overthrow the considerable dead weight of the rest of the film.
Freshly moved to Atlanta, Jermaine (Dourdan) and his wife, Jasmine (Moore), have the trappings of a perfect life. They have a beautiful house in suburbia. Jermaine is a lawyer on the fast track at his firm. Jasmine is his supportive wife, who is finishing up her college degree. In an opening montage via a home video of the pair, we see the unremarkable story of their marriage and early marital triumphs. This is a couple that has it all. Into this Eden slithers the lure of lust.
Despite his outward appearance, Jermaine reveals himself as selfish and covetous of his wife more as a possession than a person. A glimmer of his true nature peeks out during an early sex scene with his wife as he goes about his business, oblivious to Jasmine's concerns. We also find that he has been relentlessly asking Jasmine to participate in a menage- a-trois, much to Jasmine's dismay. As Jermaine puts it, "Don't you want to be sexually free?"
Jermaine shares his desire with co-worker Terrence (Smith), who obligingly sets Jermaine up with a woman who might be interested in just such an encounter. The woman, Jade (Palmer) is a direct counterpoint to Jasmine. Jade, at one point was a college student, too. Unlike Jasmine, she found herself pregnant, dropped out of school and now struggles to make ends meet. To further reinforce their differences, it's revealed that Jade is involved in a custody battle over her son.
Inevitably, through liquor and a touch of duplicity on Jermaine's part, the forbidden act is consummated. The aftermath of the encounter sidesteps into Fatal Attraction territory as acts of violence are perpetrated upon Jermaine's property with the hint that the violence may escalate. By this point, Trois shows itself to be a soap opera without the requisite melodrama: a Fatal Attraction without the social significance.
The exploration of relationships is strictly superficial and stereotypical. Jermaine comes off as insincere, sexually driven and selfish. Jasmine is bland and subservient. Jade comes off a bit sympathetically, but that is negated by her moral bankruptcy. Yet another tale of a sexually aggressive "dog" of a man who imposes his will upon his accommodating, innocent mate.
The last 10 minutes will undoubtly throw you a curve, but by this point, will you even care? If the rest of the movie was as dynamic as the ending, perhaps there could have been some freshness to it. As it stands, Trois is pretty standard fare.
Sent via Deja.com http://www.deja.com/ Before you buy.
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