5.9

Zoey Deutch and Ruby Cruz Make Up Two-Thirds of a Good Rom-Com in The Threesome

By Jesse Hassenger  |  September 5, 2025 | 2:00pm
Movies Reviews Chad Hartigan
Zoey Deutch and Ruby Cruz Make Up Two-Thirds of a Good Rom-Com in The Threesome

So many romantic comedies revel in formula, turning a genre into an embarrassing mating ritual soundtracked by the rustle of screenplay pages and bad scene-transition pop. If nothing else, The Threesome understands a greater range of emotional, physical, and logistical possibilities – so acutely, in fact, that it sometimes wanders away from the “com” part of the rom-com altogether. Not towards the full rebellion of hedonism, despite the title: When Connor (Jonah Hauer-King) has sex with his crush Olivia (Zoey Deutch) and the semi-stranger Jenny (Ruby Cruz), all together, it’s mostly offscreen and chastely depicted. The most explicit moment, at least as far as the movie is concerned, arrives hours later, fully clothed, when Olivia recounts a moment of the threesome for shock value, mostly to deflect Connor’s moony-eyed attempt to ask her on a proper date.

Olivia and Connor former restaurant coworkers; she’s still waitressing while he’s moved on from the business but not from her. One evening, their mutual friend/coworker Greg (Jaboukie Young-White) nudges Connor in the direction of Jenny, a seemingly lonely customer who’s just been stood up. Olivia, who likes and resists Connor’s sincerity in equal measure, inserts herself into the situation, fueled by what seems like a mixture of jealousy (of Connor’s flirtation), spite (of a married ex), and genuine pleasure-seeking. Connor restrains his puppy-dog side, as Olivia describes it, long enough to have fun. The next morning, he still likes Jenny. And still pines for Olivia.

I imagine some of the complications that follow plays best with as little information as possible, though as with a lot of over-twisted narratives, that’s not necessarily an uncomplicated compliment. (In any event, the trailer can fill you in further.) But director Chad Hartigan (who made the quiet, sensitive Morris from America) and writer Ethan Ogilby (whose name may be familiar from the animation credits of dozens of Simpsons episodes) are at least determined to avoid the post-three-way navel-gazing of the not-as-sexually-liberated-as-it-believes indie romance. They bring in elements of tart-tongued screwball love triangles, as well as the more shambling Judd Apatow version of same – one Apatow picture in particular will come to mind repeatedly. Loyalties and relationships shift, sometimes into grave seriousness, sometimes back into near-farcical deception. At times, the filmmakers seem to be toying with what does or does not count as a rom-com premise. Are these characters in a meet-cute, or just experiencing genuinely bad luck?

There are two basic forms of banter in a dialogue-driven rom-com like this: The kinds where the characters don’t pause long enough to acknowledge their own cleverness, and the kinds where the characters are very much aware that they’re offering each other quips in the moment. The former is usually better. The Threesome gets away with the latter – maybe two-thirds of the time, anyway. It can’t necessarily be so neatly divided as to say that Deutch and Cruz have a handle on this style and Hauer-King does not. But, look: Deutch is a veteran of glossy, glib streaming-era rom-coms, while Cruz broke through with a queerer comic performance in Bottoms, and they both show a knack for romance, whether expressing it sardonically (Deutch) or with disarming sweetness (Cruz). Hauer-King, a British actor playing American, most recently hails from the live-action-ish Little Mermaid, where he played a wan live action Prince Eric. The movie is already soft and gentle enough that it maybe could have used a male lead with some edge, or at least some corners. He handles some of his laugh lines well enough, but his American accent is a tell; he never seems quite spontaneous enough to keep pace with Deutch, so he puppy-dogs his way through.

It’s hardly his fault, though, that the movie puts all three characters, Connor and Olivia especially, through so many revelations, reversals, and changes of heart. For a while, this keeps the audience on its toes; eventually, though, the characters stop developing and instead proceed with reacting, reacting, reacting. Cruz is especially ill-served, and the most potentially original aspect of the movie – Olivia and Jenny figuring out what their relationship might look like, if anything – gets elbowed aside for Connor’s largely uninteresting feelings. Hartigan provides the requisite warm glow, but as the pace of the movie’s mild laughs slows to a crawl, it’s difficult not to think of Splitsville, another recent movie that flirts with sexual liberation (open relationships, partner-swapping) but is actually about comparatively tamer matters (love, divorce, marriage). That’s a comedy where the dexterous form matches its body-maneuvering function; The Threesome, by comparison, is mostly talk.

Director: Chad Hartigan
Writer: Ethan Ogilby
Starring: Zoey Deutch, Jonah Hauer-King, Ruby Cruz, Jaboukie Young-White, Josh Segarra
Release Date: September 5, 2025

Jesse Hassenger is associate movies editor at Paste. He also writes about movies and other pop-culture stuff for a bunch of outlets including A.V. Club, GQ, Decider, the Daily Beast, and SportsAlcohol.com, where offerings include an informal podcast. He also co-hosts the New Flesh, a podcast about horror movies, and wastes time on social media under the handle @rockmarooned.

 
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