Two Girls and a Guy (1998)

Very well executed

Sick Product of a Sick System

This is a tender, generous movie that likes its characters and presents them as real people, full of flaws and strengths.

The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.

"Two Girls and a Guy" is a three-character piece, set almost exclusively in the guy's apartment, an actor who has been seeing two different girls on the side, with them unknowingly meeting each other as they planned to be there when he arrived. This sets up a dalliance of verbal queries about infidelity and lies, where Robert Downey, Jr. (in fine form, of course) must somehow navigate out of mine fields as the two women in his life (Natasha Gregson Wagner and Heather Graham) confront him on his relationship chicanery.This is an actor's showcase and will not be for all tastes…it is a stage play given cinematic treatment by a director (James Toback) talented enough to make "dialogue heavy" work. It helps when you have imminently watchable actors in your film, obviously. Graham was too often cast for her looks, but there's more to her than just how easy on the eyes she's always been. People might sometimes forget Natasha, but when I was in my early twenties she was around a lot. This might be her acting highlight (although, I liked her lots in "Stranger Than Fiction" (2000)). Not that she's been unemployed; she has been in a ton of television. All that said, this isn't an obit writing on Natasha's career, but a recognition of one of her finest moments.The two actresses meet at the door of the apartment complex, talk a bit (well, Natasha does most of the talking, in that "speedy won't let her get many words in edge-wise" fashion), and learn that the same man they are waiting to see is Downey, Jr. Wagner breaks into the window of his apartment, the two enter, with Graham surprising Downey, Jr. as he operatically sings around the joint, quizzically challenging his fidelity towards her in words. Well, he gives her the song and dance about her being the only one and Wagner emerges to give him a start. From that point forward, there's this tactical/strategic game of verbal cat-and-mouse where the two girls grill and drill Downey about why he lied to them and if he just should have been honest with them about the desire to have multiple women. It is one of those organic, cerebral efforts, where I am sure Toback allowed them to ad-lib and contribute much in the same way as Linklater did with Hawke and Delpy in the wonderful Before Sunrise/Sunset/Midnight series. I certainly don't think the actors stuck strictly to a script (I don't think the mirror scene after Downey, Jr. pretended to kill himself, with blood all over him, jawing at his reflection, was written as is in a script), but they were allowed the freedom to bring their own ideas to the characters. The loft is incredible: there's a piano and so much space, so it is hard to imagine he is as struggling as the phone calls to his agent might indicate. This vast, lavish loft does give the actors plenty of room to move about and make it a character along with them…but it is very much similar to a dressed stage in that it serves its purpose as a location for the talking heads to not feel too constrained. If anything, the loft is dressed so "actor oriented" with the profession of Downey quite ever present, that you have something as attractive as the actors in it. Downey, Jr. doing Hamlet as the actresses seem to motivate him is impressive. This might be a bit too talky and the dialogue often hangs on sexually based conversation driven by a narrative on concealing truth and betrayal, addressing the whys and reasons people cheat on those they are in a romance with. Included is Downey's devotion to his mother, and there's a sad final scene where Heather is there for him in a time of deep sorrow that's touching. This doesn't, surprisingly, just take a giant pile on Downey, but is a seemingly sincere attempt to have three people consider their options after infidelity is unearthed. A unique one-of-a-kind experiment…I think for some, this will be worthwhile if just because of Downey's involvement. This does have a fascinating make-out scene where Downey and Graham perform oral sex on each other while Natasha listens on intently; Natasha also posits that if Downey had just been honest with her, there might have been a possibility of a polygamous relationship!

I came across this movie while reading up on Downey's biography. I must say I would have dismissed this movie if I had not known about Downey's history & how this movie was made. just 5 characters; 3 major & 2 minor, I didn't think I would last an hour. But, to my surprise, I did. Boy, oh boy! I quiet enjoyed it. The plot is simple - 2 girls are wait outside a building. They chat and in the process find out they share a common, 2-timing boyfriend. The rest of the movie is about how they confront him and how he reacts to being busted. Yes, it is chatty, yes, there are monologues, but, enjoyable and witty nevertheless. Downey carries the film with ease. One can relate to the plot. It can happen in everyday life. This is a refreshing take on the situation. We are treated not just with Downey's acting powers but also to his other gifts that are cleverly packaged in the movie. It does have a flavour of being a stage play but, that does not come in the way of the final experience.

Robert Downey Jr. just saved my life. No, he didn't find me lying unconscious on the street and give me CPR. No, he didn't inspire me to get off drugs. And he didn't swoop down in a suit of high tech armor and rescue me from The Unicorn. I did just watch Two Girls and a Guy and his performance is the only thing that kept this movie from being slit-my-wrists unwatchable. This is the sort of film that makes otherwise normal people hate independent cinema. It is dull and pretentious and phony and is the sort of New York City storytelling that even Woody Allen finds a little too self involved. Imagine Kevin Smith without a sense of humor, Quentin Tarantino without a sense of irony and Michael Bay without a drop of adrenaline. That's writer/director James Toback in all his ignominy here.Here's the whole deal. Carla (Heather Graham) and Lou (Natasha Gregson Wagner) find out they've been dating the same guy for the last 10 months. When Blake (Robert Downey Jr.) returns to his insanely huge loft, they confront him and blather commences. They talk about hurt feelings. They talk about relationships. They talk about acting. They talk about Blake's mom. Carla and Lou talk. Carla and Blake talk. Carla, Blake and Lou talk. Blake and Carla have sex. Then they talk and talk and talk some more. But for all that chatter, the best scenes in the whole production are when Blake is talking on the phone to someone the audience can't hear. That's because only the awesome power of RDJ's talent is able to take this fake, unrealistic dialog and make it sound like something a human being would say.It's not that Heather Graham and Natasha Gregson Wagner are without talent. It's just that you don't need talent for this material. You need (trumpets blare)…TALENT!!!!!! Whenever Graham and Wagner open their mouths, they can't do anything but recite this crap. It doesn't sound like anything people would say. It's not structured like anything people would say. The motivations and behavior assigned to Carla and Lou by this script are as realistic and believable as the special effects in Plan 9 From Outer Space.Let me give you one example of what I mean and I'll only give you one for fear that remembering more of Two Girls and a Guy would send me into a self-induced coma of disgust and ennui. When Blake returns home, Lou and Carla initially hide. Then Carla emerges and slowly works up to an argument with Blake where she gets him to profess his unshakable fidelity to her. That's when Lou emerges from the closet to expose his romantic perfidy. But what woman is going to sit in the closet for the better part of 10 minutes while her boyfriend's other girlfriend talks to him? It's not Carla and Lou planned to trap Blake somehow. Lou just sat in the darkness for no reason until the Almighty Plot Hammer knocked her into the light. What kind of person could both control her own emotions and trust a near total stranger enough to let the situation unfold like that? And that scene is not the most contrived one in the script.Somehow, RDJ is able to take this dialog that even George Lucas would choke on and make it not only fun to listen to but sound like something which could come out of the mouth of a living homo sapien. How does he do it? I don't know. That's what makes him so great and should make all of us so thankful he didn't wind up dead in some alley from a drug overdose. But even RDJ can't salvage things when he has to interact with his less gifted castmates and their vain attempts to do something with this garbage writing.Do you want to know how bad Two Girls and a Guy really is? If, at some point in this movie, Graham and Wagner had gotten buck naked and engaged in a 5 minute long lesbian sex scene, I still wouldn't recommend watching it. Not even to fast forward to that scene. Stick that in your pipe and smoke it.

This movie is awful in so many ways. The acting is stilted, especially in the opening scenes where the female leads are getting to know each other. If you close your eyes and only listen to their voices, it sounds like they are reading from a script. If I , a rank amateur, can tell the pacing of their conversation sounds like it is from a third rate school play, it makes one wonder about the director. Secondly, the viewer does not feel for the characters as they are cardboard representations of actual people. The plot is boring and the ending, while bringing relief that the torture is over, does not bring proper closure. I do not understand how anyone could like this; even the "payoff" most male viewers are hoping for does not occur. Sadly, I own this movie. Anybody who wants to rectify this situation, please contact me.