It Takes Three
Starring Jared Gilman, Aurora Perrinaeu,Mikey Madison, Davod Gridley
Directed by Scot Coffey
Rating: ** ½
There was nothing here that one could possibly take home because, one, it is a standard routine rom-com about the campus nerd, the campus jock, the campus beauty with brain and the campus tomboy. Also, because what could one take home when one is watching the film at home? Ha ha.
Seriously the jokes in this film are far better than the one I just cracked. The director cracks the Cyrano de Bergec fable about the man with an extra-large nose in love with the unattainable beauty. Here Cy Berger(how inventive!) is not a nosy loverboy. He is just nerd with glasses who has been raised by two spirited lesbians.
The duel-mom angle is refreshing, sassy and funny specially in the way Cy is moddlycoddled by his two moms who think he is the most handsome boy on this side of Tom Cruise. Cy of course takes his Moms’ pampering with a pinch of salt. He wants a major plastic surgery done to his ordinary face, and is saving up for it.
Cy then meets the sorted articulate and brainy sensible Roxy(Aurora Parrineau) who is wooed by the campus hunk who has thousands of followers on Instagram where he spews bumpersticker gyan to a generation starved for starvation diets.Cy’s best friend Kat(Mikey Madison) will remind you of Kajol in Karan Johar’s Kuch Kuch Hota Hai.
I like the way this film takes its four stereotypical characters into confidence, nurtures their prototypical propensities and converts them into individuals from types. It is an alchemic transformation, and one that goes a long way in transmuting the inherent triteness of the quadrangle into something special.
That extra spark in the dialogues and that feeling of watching characters who are able to rise above the lower heights to claim a sliver of fame is palpable . The actors are new yet convincing specially Aurora Paerrineu who snubs the social-media stud so softly it takes a while to understand how effectively the writers have converted the clichéd characters into something worthwhile and interesting.
