Two Guys and a Girl is a stage play put on film, but what sets it apart are what make any play interesting: some staggering scenes of drama and conflict (or even humor) and the performances. The film is ostensibly about two girls (Wagner and Graham), both dating the duplicitous actor Blake (Downey Jr) and how by chance they see each other on the steps of his building waiting for him, figure out who the other is to him, and then ambush him with the big question: Why the lies? This becomes the main crux of what Toback is after, which is an investigation of lies in an actor and the sexual truths in a man who seems to be obsessed with his (supposedly) sick mother, and even reverts into performing Hamlet, oddly enough, rather than face up to the big questions at hand.
Bergman's Scenes from a Marriage deep? Not entirely, and as a director of actors with such a low-budget AND ambition he takes a few minutes getting things feeling right (maybe this is due in some small part to Wagner not being the strongest actor, at least compared to the other two around her - or maybe just the one really) with the weirdly fast dialog. But when Downey steps into the room the film takes on a whole other air. There's complaints to be had about the film, such as a script that only usually, not always, takes very seriously what a confrontation-mega-argument like this would really turn into (albeit, and I must say it, the ill-rated NC-17 sex scene is about as hot as anything in late 90s cinema). And a couple of scenes contain, again, some clunky dialog that maybe needed a polish over - keep in mind this is a script Toback wrote in a little over a week, and maybe didn't know at first if it would be film or theater bound.
And yet, with the complaints to be had, there's Robert Downey Jr. Toback wrote the film for him and it's hard not to see him fulfill the character every single moment on screen. Maybe it's a little easy to see an actor like Downey playing a full-of-himself actor/whatever who dances around relationships with women and commitment since Blake is a character who can't even trust himself let alone others. You don't want to take your eyes off this guy for a second, and that's the genius of Downey Jr whenever he's in material that calls his attention. If nothing else, Two Girls and a Guy becomes an actor-movie must-see for the scene right after he's "punked" his girlfriends by pretending suicide, face half blood splattered, and has a "talk" at himself in the mirror. It's a moment of madness that could give Travis Bickle an eyebrow raise.
And that ending - one of those rare twists that somehow makes the rest of the film look in a different light. It also provides one more scene of amazing acting from one of America's best.
Bergman's Scenes from a Marriage deep? Not entirely, and as a director of actors with such a low-budget AND ambition he takes a few minutes getting things feeling right (maybe this is due in some small part to Wagner not being the strongest actor, at least compared to the other two around her - or maybe just the one really) with the weirdly fast dialog. But when Downey steps into the room the film takes on a whole other air. There's complaints to be had about the film, such as a script that only usually, not always, takes very seriously what a confrontation-mega-argument like this would really turn into (albeit, and I must say it, the ill-rated NC-17 sex scene is about as hot as anything in late 90s cinema). And a couple of scenes contain, again, some clunky dialog that maybe needed a polish over - keep in mind this is a script Toback wrote in a little over a week, and maybe didn't know at first if it would be film or theater bound.
And yet, with the complaints to be had, there's Robert Downey Jr. Toback wrote the film for him and it's hard not to see him fulfill the character every single moment on screen. Maybe it's a little easy to see an actor like Downey playing a full-of-himself actor/whatever who dances around relationships with women and commitment since Blake is a character who can't even trust himself let alone others. You don't want to take your eyes off this guy for a second, and that's the genius of Downey Jr whenever he's in material that calls his attention. If nothing else, Two Girls and a Guy becomes an actor-movie must-see for the scene right after he's "punked" his girlfriends by pretending suicide, face half blood splattered, and has a "talk" at himself in the mirror. It's a moment of madness that could give Travis Bickle an eyebrow raise.
And that ending - one of those rare twists that somehow makes the rest of the film look in a different light. It also provides one more scene of amazing acting from one of America's best.