Threesome

When Alex (Boyle) turns up at college, she's dismayed to find herself in adjoining rooms with two males: studious, uptight Eddy (Charles) and obnoxious, neanderthal Stuart (Baldwin). Stuart puts the moves on her, but it's intellectual Eddy she hankers after. Eddy, unfortunately, is more interested in Stuart. They become inseparable. Fleming's risqué comedy has a rather supercilious, hipper-than-thou attitude which makes it difficult to warm to, while sequences in which the threesome freeze out interlopers leave a somewhat sour aftertaste. And then, of course, in opening up this particular can of worms, the film courts suspicion from all sides of the sexual divide. (For my money, though, it doesn't have the courage to see through its bisexual convictions. The film is, however, notably more relaxed about the shifting sands of sexual identity than most, and at the very least it does dare to eroticise a male friendship.) Simply as a comedy, it's witty and assured enough to mark Fleming out as someone to watch.