Zoey Deutch Rom-Com Chases Something More

“The Threesome” starts at a wedding where there’s more than one marriage going on. There’s the literal one happening on stage, where Connor (Jonah Hauer-King) toasts his friends Matthew (Tommy Do) and Greg (a scene-stealing Jaboukie Young-White) as the two say their vows. But even more promising is the union of sensibilities happening behind the scenes, as director Chad Hartigan — who is capable of both contemplative dramas (“This Is Martin Bonner”) and raucous comedies (“Morris From America”) — tries to strike a balance between screenwriter Ethan Ogilby’s cringe-humor premise and the more serious relationship dynamics it suggests. The results are mixed in ways the filmmakers probably didn’t intend, but they’re at once genuinely intriguing and enormously charming given the talent involved.

As it happens, Matthew and Greg are not the couple this complicated rom-com is really about. That would be Connor and Olivia (Zoey Deutch), a waitress whom Connor has pined over for some time. Seeing him talk up a customer named Jenny (Ruby Cruz) while she’s on the clock one night leads to all three eventually finding themselves back at his apartment. A marijuana-aided game of truth or dare ends in both women spending the night. When Connor wakes up to see Jenny by his side and no sign of Olivia, he can’t help but believe that the night of passion was just a one-time thing.

For unexpected reasons, the three remain intertwined by the consequences of the evening, as Hartigan admirably takes the setup for an early-’80s sex comedy and steers it toward more introspective territory. The dilemma Connor faces isn’t a new one exactly as he’s attracted to Olivia, but would probably be better off if he started to pursue something with Jenny, the seemingly more steady and sensible of the two. Yet the film is driven not by a sense of competition, but instead by how the three continue to find out who they are after an evening in which everyone balanced one another’s needs in the bedroom. The trio is inextricably connected by the aftermath and have to figure out what they do and don’t want in their lives by which of the partners they gravitate toward.

As much as the trio makes for strange bedfellows, “The Threesome” sits uneasily at times between genres. Aesthetically, the film operates with the same palette of earth tones and casually beautiful cinematography that grounded Hartigan’s great sci-fi romance “Little Fish,” but that style can occasionally be at odds with its more boisterous bits of broad humor, with a supporting cast including Arden Myrin and Robert Longstreet as Jenny’s God-fearing parents and Julia Sweeney as Connor’s mother looking as if they’ve arrived from a sitcom. (There is an extremely sly use of a sad trombone, when Connor works as a sound engineer, and a real playfulness to Sing Howe Yam’s camerawork.) Deutch proves again she can iron out any tonal shifts with ease, but the film mirrors its characters too closely at times when it may not always know what it wants to be.

With a title like “The Threesome,” it could disappoint some that there isn’t a little more audacity on display, but it’s admirable that Hartigan and Ogilby dare to seek out something more in the high-concept idea they’ve hatched than to settle for cheap laughs and easy answers. That desire to be a little more mature is one faced by all involved in “The Threesome,” and while growing pains are evident, the end result is richer for it.