A Film That Captured Everything and Surprised Everyone: The Anticipation Before the Release of the Film
Before the first showing of the film, Three Ways, there was significant anticipation. However, it was merely a word of mouth film with little known about it. The film was described as a comedy-drama, depicting the nuances of relationships, such as connection, consent, and fantasies. There was a bold expectation of the film. Subsequently, there was a great buzz about the film with online users concurrently asking if the film was the first of its kind to depict intimacy. Would the film, truly, depict the complexities of a relationship and the connection of the characters? There was anticipation and a feeling of great curiosity about the film. This became a talking point online, particularly about its potential role in redefining the depiction of intimacy.
The cast was also a significant talking point about the film. They contained Andrea Grano and Emilia Ellis, who were both actors in a branching portion of their careers. Grano was moving out of comedy and into dramas of greater emotional depth, and Ellis had recently described her artistic career as having undergone a rough involuntary hiatus with typecasting; she was now, however, also branching out. The film was a breakout opportunity for all the actors involved.
Dom Jones dazzles with his charm, and his willingness to openly share concerns about real-life relationships strongly persuaded onlookers that the audience would experience real frankness about relationships on such a challenging exposition. When linked with such a dominating trio and a controversial pubic print, the film projected itself as a strongly contrasted avsolution with a humanistic perspective upon a captivatingly raw premise.
Sure, you can reduce the film to just about a couple who is considering the addition of a third partner into the equation. It is easy at the start of “Three Ways” to reduce the film to the base level. But the film is clever. It is more about what people refuse to acknowledge.
Max and Jess are a couple deeply in love, but to date, neither has spoken about the truths behind their own inner desires and their own expectations to one another. Max, with fear but insatiable curiosity, proposes to Jess the addition of a third partner; Jess, feeling more pressure, accepts the suggestion. There is also a strong, knowledgeable, and vigorous third partner named Rowan that neither of them expects to play such an active role in their reflective process.
What makes the plot engaging is the way the film slows down to show emotional moments most movies skip: the way the first text is sent, the sigh of “Should we really do this?”, the way one person takes control while the other simply reacts, the fits of nervous ego laughter, the moments that save an interaction from silence, a chuckle that happens during a lapse of control before the awkwardness takes hold. It is emotional without being overwhelming.
Over the course of the movie, each character experiences an internal arc, or perhaps a small internal unraveling. The film guides the characters through this unraveling with offhanded tenderness, which is a pleasant surprise given the films marketing.
These characters bleed more than they speak, and the character Jess is the epitome of this sentiment. Andrea Grano portrays Jess with an honest trembling voice that makes the audience ache for her. During filming, Grano had talked about her desire to represent women who do not have their lives figured out. Who fumble and face contradictions. This is obvious in every scene when Jess battles with the idea of giving love to someone or receiving validation herself. The audience sees her struggle with the idea of not being “enough,” an internal battle which Grano herself had in her career.
Max, played by Dom Jones, possesses that charm of someone that comes off as secure. However, the depth of his performance comes from the subtle cracks–the hint of fear that he is not as free-spirited or in control as he seems. Jones had just come off of several high energy performances that had pigeon holed him as the \”confident guy.\” This film allowed him to be delicate, and he took full advantage.
That’s where Emilia Ellis as Rowan brings the story flipping energy. Ellis, who in real life is noted for her advocacy of emotional honesty, perfectly embodies Rowan. She is a wildfire herself, but with a profound sense of empathy. She is the opposite of a seductress, and rather the surprising mentor guiding Jess and Max to the emotional honesty that they didn’t realize they were missing.
Cinematic Choices That Make the Story Work
The film is visually and contextually intimate in its first act with the use of tight shot compositions to show the internal battling magnified with every frame. When Rowan comes in, the breathing room is literal with framing as the camera pulls wide and the story gains emotional and literal depth.
Three Ways uses silence effectively. The production chooses to acknowledge the reality that not all intensely felt moments have to be vocalized. The stage is set with warm, soft, low lights, and the narrative tension is carefully and strategically modulated between low-burning, prolonged tensions and brief intermissions of whirling humor, which have the effect of keeping the narrative grounded and humanized.
Some viewers, on the other hand, found their experience of the film to be impacted rather negatively by the sudden, abrupt changes of tone, particularly with respect to the emotionality traversed and the types of humor that appeared awkward or out of place.
However, the film’s real-life performances and its authenticity derive from an elegant and masterful direction, creating a sound and steady rhythm that renders the film successful.
Real Lives Meet Fiction is the Reason Why This Film Resonates so Deeply.
Ongoing meshing of real lives and fictional portrayal was captured in this film by the actors’ embodiment of the characters and it is also the reason this film resonates with so many individuals.
Grano has spoken about the emotional sensitivity that she has to embody every time she performs, particularly during this current phase of her career characterized by an evolution in the types of characters she performs, from “the funny friend” to a lead. In this sense, Jess is a fitting character, representative of a positive, beautiful evolution that is multifaceted and – compared to the other characters – a bit disorganized.
Jones describes Max as a reflection of himself, as he is also in a stage of life where he is starting to be open about his relationship insecurities. In a press interview for the film, he spoke about his life experiences and how he tried to be intentional about making Max a relatable character and not a stereotype.
As a champion for emotional bravery, it seems like Ellis is almost vanishing into Rowan. In the public sphere, Ellis is known for declining roles that restrict women to stereotypical portrayals. Rowan is her response to these type of roles, a character who does not submit to the gimmic and who has a rich interior life.
Behind the Scenes
Production of the film was not the smooth experience that it was marketed to be. In the early drafts, the script was much more focused on humor. However, the cast, Grano in particular, advocated for a more emotional approach to be taken for certain scenes in order to avoid making intimacy a joke.
There were also not unheard of tensions when it came to the choreography for the intimate scenes. While not the type of tensions that get you into trouble, there were some differences of opinion on authenticity, pacing, and how consent would be shown. The actors wanted to collect the emotional choreography and so they compromised parts of the shooting schedule for more rehearsal time.
Another seldom examined difficulty was keeping tonal equilibrium. Some test screenings revealed audience divisions—some preferred more comedic relief while others called for greater weight in the emotions. The concluding version reflects a stalemate that perhaps not all audience members realize, but the cast and crew were profoundly aware.
These behind the scenes instances shaped Three Ways as a film not only shaped by the texts and directives, but of the individual belief systems and insecurities of the individuals who created it.
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