Review: IT TAKES THREE Is the Updated Teen Rom-Com You've Seen Before
I watched the teen rom-com It Takes Three this week, ahead of its release this Friday. The movie was your typical formula of “guy likes girl, guy needs help from a nerd to know how to talk to girl, they both fall in love with her.” It is based on the classic Cyrano de Bergerac story that has been explored in several films and series, so you basically know what to expect as you get into it.
The movie does try to wink at the style of the beloved ‘80s movies made by iconic director John Hughes, but I felt that it just missed the mark. The movie did try to capture the awkwardness of high school, but in a couple of scenes, it pushed the sexualization of the teens in a way that makes some of the moments in those movies feel kind of gross to watch all these years later.
The movie seemed to make the characters, except one, fall for each other based on very little. I know it’s high school, and that can happen, but it felt underdeveloped. The movie did have a bit of a redemptive ending, and it was cute to watch unfold. But by then I hadn’t developed a deep care for the characters, like I had hoped I would. It was an okay movie, and maybe teenagers would enjoy it more than I did, but I can think of a whole list of teen rom-coms that did it a little better than this one.
It Takes Three will be available On Demand and Digital on September 3, 2021.
