Taglines: All’s fair in the war of love.
Three to Tango movie storyline. Architects Oscar Novak (Matthew Perry) and Peter Steinberg (Oliver Platt) have just landed a career-making opportunity to design of a multimillion dollar cultural center for wealthy businessman Charles Newman (Dylan 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 (Neve 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.
Three to Tango is a 1999 American romantic comedy film directed by Damon Santostefano and starring Matthew Perry, Neve Campbell, Dylan McDermott, Oliver Platt, John C. McGinley, Bob Balaban, Deborah Rush, Kelly Rowan, Patrick Van Horn and David Ramsey.
Three to Tango (1999)
Directed by: Damon Santostefano
Starring: Matthew Perry, Neve Campbell, Dylan McDermott, Oliver Platt, John C. McGinley, Bob Balaban, Deborah Rush, Kelly Rowan, Patrick Van Horn, David Ramsey
Screenplay by: Rodney Patrick Vaccaro
Production Design by: David Nichols
Cinematography by: Walt Lloyd
Film Editing by: Stephen Semel
Costume Design by: Vicki Graef
Set Decoration by: Enrico Campana
Art Direction by: Vlasta Svoboda
Music by: Graeme Revell
MPAA Rating: PG-13 for sex-related situations and language.
Distributed by: Warner Bros. Pictures
Release Date: October 22, 1999
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