Two Girls and a Guy (1997) User Reviews

Good Ensemble Acting

[gbheron · 7/10 · 31 October 1999]

Two Girls and a Guy consists of an extended conversation between three people; a guy played by Robert Downy, Jr and two girls played by Natasha Wagner and Heather Graham. Both young ladies have been Downey's lover over the past year, and through that time each believed they were his one and only. Unfortunately they both show up unannounced at his loft apartment to 'surprise' him and discover the charade. The discovery occurs in the first scene and what follows is a verbal confrontation between the three in which they discuss love, sex, commitment, truth, yadda-yadda.

I'm not knocking it; the movie is really very good. The three actors work very well together in what is sometimes fine improvisation. Definitely worth the rental when you are in the mood for something different.

What just happened to me????

[ljw415 · 5/10 · 27 April 2002]

I had to watch this movie twice just to make sure I watched the WHOLE thing. This movie has been reviewed by some pretty snotty people that think it's genius. If genius is defined by making the viewer uncomfortable, then yes this is a work of genius.

This movie is dark and disturbing. I get the feeling that Robert Downey, Jr. is playing himself. There is a very dark scene where he confronts himself in the mirror, and I don't think anyone could have possibly written that dialogue.

This movie pushes the envelope on the way we think about relationships. The gritty, unrehearsed style may be a bit rough on an audience that is used to a polished performance.

I didn't hate it, but I didn't love it. Robert Downey, Jr. is always worth watching, even when it isn't much fun.

The movie works because RDJ could be THAT guy

[SnoopyStyle · 7/10 · 26 April 2014]

Carla (Heather Graham) and Lou (Natasha Gregson Wagner) are both waiting on the street to surprise their boyfriends. However it's soon obvious that both of them are dating the same guy Blake (Robert Downey Jr). The girls break into his apartment to confront him. When he arrives, he starts talking to the girls and will he be able to turn things around?

Written and directed by James Toback, this is basically a three person play. The scenes are long and uncut. The dialog flows like an improvised rambling train of thought. Wagner is the rambling young naive girl. Graham is the more experienced woman. This movie depends almost solely on the magnetism of RDJ, and he makes it work. The two girls play off of RDJ like stereo. He could be THAT guy and I buy that he could actually talk his way out of the situation.

Two brats and a dick

[vitachiel · 1/10 · 25 January 2008]

This movie is about pathetic, spoiled, ego-driven winers who think they have something interesting to say, performed by pathetic, spoiled, ego-driven winers who think they are interesting. Straight from the coke-filled gutters of New York's arty farty incestuous drama scene.

How so many viewers get tricked into making them think this carries any substance remains a mystery to me. Maybe they secretly long to belong too to this overpaid and overestimated 'actor guild' or maybe they have never seen a decent movie?

Get out, put your hands in the dirty earth and get a real job. Otherwise, kill your self with a real gun.

best seen as the Robert Downey Jr show, and a good acidic relationship drama

[Quinoa1984 · 7/10 · 4 May 2009]

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.

Two Girls and a Guy

[jboothmillard · 1/10 · 18 March 2005]

This is a ridiculous film that goes on and on. Basically these two girls meet each other outside an apartment and soon discover that they are both waiting for the same man. One of them is Heather Graham, I don't recognise the other one. They decide to teach their boyfriend a lesson. They sneak through the window and wait for him to arrive. He is Robert Downey Jr. This is the part that goes on for ages, they just keep going backwards and forwards, argue again and again. This gets really annoying and confusing after a while. This is why I have given it such a low rating. Also I was hoping Heather Graham to get her clothes off, as she usually does. I mean she did, but it wasn't good enough. I admit I may want to see it again to confirm my opinion. Poor!

Downey's performance is the best part of the movie

[Apollo-14 · 6/10 · 21 April 1999]

Or maybe it's the two female co-stars' atrocious acting that makes him look good. I've seen kindergarten plays with better acting than that.

It's a pity because the script was pretty decent and the conflict was good. The director took a big chance by staging the entire movie practically within one room and hiring the first two women he met on the street as actresses, but the story is a perfect example of a love triangle that verges on a menage a trois and making it believable. However, the ending left me with the impression that nothing was resolved.

Downey is very impressive and the movie overall is refreshing and different; it's worth a watch. But it's not worth more than a 6/10

Script lets it down. Downey Jr Shines

[cwhitfield · 3/10 · 3 July 2001]

While the prominent and over use of the play-like format is in total operation throughout the film, it is not however this that lets this picture down. Rather it is the unconvincing female performances and rather tedious script that the film so obviously relied on a little too much. With an idea that had potential, the simple plot is diminished still by Graham's failure to truly express the devastation her character so adamantly claims to experience. The use of improvised scenes by all the actors would not be such a bad idea if only the two leading ladies could take advantage of this privilege. As Downey Jr proves as usual what a gifted actor he is, he shadows the two actresses in their scenes together which is constantly noticeable. The pointless yet intense sex scene seems merely to exist in order to prevent the film from being too verbally expressive giving the actors a much deserved break from talking. With an unsatisfying conclusion, Two Girls and a Guy has very little to recommend it other than Downey Jr's formidable if not out of place performance.

interesting

[EBathory · 7/10 · 10 July 2008]

I bought this movie because I am a huge Robert Downey Jr fan again and i am trying to get a hold of all of his past stuff. Now, this one intrigued me and after watching it, still does. It more plays out as something that belongs on the stage rather than screen. I could very much see it as a play. I do say that the most emotion went to Downey while the two girls were very good when they went on the attack. After seeing the whole movie, you see the two girls in different lights. Carla had the deeper emotional attachment to Blake even though she seemed cooler at the beginning. Lou seemed to be more enthralled with the idea of dating a celebrity. Over all good but it takes some thought.

Pretentious Tripe

[bob_bear · 2/10 · 25 December 2006]

First and foremost, an utter waste of three extremely talented actors. Though, since they chose to appear in this pretentious tripe, maybe one should put the blame on them? But no. An actor has to earn a living just like the rest of us. I feel sorriest for Wagner. She was a talented nobody going into it and a talented nobody coming out of it.

Stagey in the extreme, it is like a piece of pretentious, off-Broadway, New York psycho-drama in fear of disappearing up it's own...you know what! Why on earth would two attractive, intelligent women stay in the apartment of the contemptible philanderer that Downey plays having once confronted him except to stretch out a ten minute drama into a full length movie??? I have no sympathy for any of the characters. It's all a load of bunkum. Watch and waste valuable hours of your life. Clipping your toenails would be more productive and profoundly more desirable.

Utter rot.

Interesting, if not wonderful.

[aeh16 · 8/10 · 26 July 2003]

To say that this movie is shallow, or unrealistic, is to miss the point. While it certainly has a lot to say about sex, and especially sexual fidelity, the point of the film is not that at all, but that concerns of sex are not truly the most important factors in a relationship. While loyalty and honesty certainly are, forgiveness is still a virtue, and lying about sex is not the same as lying about feelings. Though I, of course, do not agree with what the female characters in this movie did, at least the movie makes the oft-overlooked point that sex isn't everything, a point seldom made in movies, and often made in life. Though it is certainly not an exceptional movie, it is worth seeing, and an interesting look into the privileged status sex has attained in our modern society.

6 on a scale of 10

[len-21 · 6/10 · 4 December 1999]

I'm not sure what part of this movie was supposed to be believable. The story is about a guy who is simulatneously dating two girls very steadily. After many months, neither knows anything about the other until they happen to both decide to surprise him in front of his apartment after a trip. They discover each other and the rest is about their confronting him.

The fact that they end up wanting each other as well as him despite breaking into his apartment, listening to a huge number of lies by him, tolerating his maternal complex, is ridiculous to put it mildly. They don't tie him up and do bad things to him. Instead one wants a threesome and the other has sex with him - while all parties are present.

Despite the implausibility of the script, I was somewhat interested in what would happen next. I watched to the end. That was a mistake, because the end was a weak letdown.

Not for everyone.

self-indulgent tripe

[hosehead-3 · 1/10 · 21 December 1998]

The most self-indulgent movie I have every had the misfortune to

rent. Unwatchable. Much of the movie is obviously improvised,

and not well. It looks like Toback took the first take of

everything. The movie gets good for a couple of minutes when

Robert Downey Jr. shows up, then goes to hell again real

quickly.

Wonderful

[dreadfuldan · 22 August 2000]

I watched it last night and thought it was brilliant. Robert Downey is just stunning, and the final scene of the movie floored me. I''m not sure how to use the word pathos properly but that final scene exudes it. But before that the whole movie is an excellent examination of an actor who can't stop acting and the two girlfriends and mother he loves. Very witty and exciting to watch. I loved it.

Could have been something special

[The_Void · 4/10 · 27 September 2004]

After an intriguing start, this little drama quickly descends into the ranks of sheer mediocrity. The start of the movie sees two women (Heather Graham and Natasha Gregson Wagner) meet each other while waiting for their boyfriends to get home from their holidays. Natasha Gregson Wagner is a lovely looking actress, and she plays Louise; a cute girl whose beloved boyfriend is an all round entertainer; music, movies you name it, he does it. While she's telling the other girl, Carla (Heather Graham) all about her wonderful boyfriend, it soon becomes apparent that the similarities between their two male friends are too much.... and it's obvious that the two girls are dating the same guy. Oh Dear. Enter Robert Downey Jnr, the sleaze-bag that has two girlfriends while some poor guy somewhere has to go without one. Downey plays the sort of guy that the ladies like, but men find repulsively annoying; he is, basically, a mummy's boy. The worst kind too; on the phone ringing mother all the time, continually showering his girlfriends with ambitious (albeit empty) promises etc. It's enough to make a normal guy sick.

The film knowingly rips off superior three-way love triangle films such as Jules et Jim. This film doesn't work though; mostly due to the fact that it's story is so unbelievable. Seriously, if two women had just found that they were dating the same guy...they wouldn't stick around to talk about it. Another reason why it falls down is that it's just so turgid. There's no end of possibilities for the outcome of the situation that this movie presents, especially with the claustrophobia of setting it all in a small apartment; but all the movie does is get lost in masses of dialogue; badly written and poorly delivered dialogue, that is. The film is also massively overacted; it just isn't believable that people would act like they do in this film after finding themselves in this situation. Robert Downey Jnr is one of the many things that is wasted in the film. With Natural Born Killers, he proved that he could give brilliantly entertaining performances, and that is something that this movie could do with. The two females aren't wasted because nobody expected anything from them anyway, but Downey could definitely have been better utilised. Overall? A waste of time. Don't bother, see Jules et Jim or Natural Born Killers instead. That's my advice.

Tried a little too hard

[erasure-2 · 7/10 · 5 November 1998]

The movie started out with promise, but tried a little too hard to appeal to the Gen-X crowd. The philosophical conversations seemed tired and a cliche. Nevertheless, Rob was in top form...as usual.

This flick really needed a pizza place

[MBunge · 4/10 · 26 October 2011]

Robert Downey Jr. just saved my life. No, he didn't find me lying unconscious on the street and give me CPR. No, he didn't inspire me to get off drugs. And he didn't swoop down in a suit of high tech armor and rescue me from The Unicorn. I did just watch Two Girls and a Guy and his performance is the only thing that kept this movie from being slit-my-wrists unwatchable. This is the sort of film that makes otherwise normal people hate independent cinema. It is dull and pretentious and phony and is the sort of New York City storytelling that even Woody Allen finds a little too self involved. Imagine Kevin Smith without a sense of humor, Quentin Tarantino without a sense of irony and Michael Bay without a drop of adrenaline. That's writer/director James Toback in all his ignominy here.

Here's the whole deal. Carla (Heather Graham) and Lou (Natasha Gregson Wagner) find out they've been dating the same guy for the last 10 months. When Blake (Robert Downey Jr.) returns to his insanely huge loft, they confront him and blather commences. They talk about hurt feelings. They talk about relationships. They talk about acting. They talk about Blake's mom. Carla and Lou talk. Carla and Blake talk. Carla, Blake and Lou talk. Blake and Carla have sex. Then they talk and talk and talk some more. But for all that chatter, the best scenes in the whole production are when Blake is talking on the phone to someone the audience can't hear. That's because only the awesome power of RDJ's talent is able to take this fake, unrealistic dialog and make it sound like something a human being would say.

It's not that Heather Graham and Natasha Gregson Wagner are without talent. It's just that you don't need talent for this material. You need (trumpets blare)…TALENT!!!!!! Whenever Graham and Wagner open their mouths, they can't do anything but recite this crap. It doesn't sound like anything people would say. It's not structured like anything people would say. The motivations and behavior assigned to Carla and Lou by this script are as realistic and believable as the special effects in Plan 9 From Outer Space.

Let me give you one example of what I mean and I'll only give you one for fear that remembering more of Two Girls and a Guy would send me into a self-induced coma of disgust and ennui. When Blake returns home, Lou and Carla initially hide. Then Carla emerges and slowly works up to an argument with Blake where she gets him to profess his unshakable fidelity to her. That's when Lou emerges from the closet to expose his romantic perfidy. But what woman is going to sit in the closet for the better part of 10 minutes while her boyfriend's other girlfriend talks to him? It's not Carla and Lou planned to trap Blake somehow. Lou just sat in the darkness for no reason until the Almighty Plot Hammer knocked her into the light. What kind of person could both control her own emotions and trust a near total stranger enough to let the situation unfold like that? And that scene is not the most contrived one in the script.

Somehow, RDJ is able to take this dialog that even George Lucas would choke on and make it not only fun to listen to but sound like something which could come out of the mouth of a living homo sapien. How does he do it? I don't know. That's what makes him so great and should make all of us so thankful he didn't wind up dead in some alley from a drug overdose. But even RDJ can't salvage things when he has to interact with his less gifted castmates and their vain attempts to do something with this garbage writing.

Do you want to know how bad Two Girls and a Guy really is? If, at some point in this movie, Graham and Wagner had gotten buck naked and engaged in a 5 minute long lesbian sex scene, I still wouldn't recommend watching it. Not even to fast forward to that scene. Stick that in your pipe and smoke it.

Light entertainment or great performances?

[tumejorcliente · 7/10 · 22 June 2005]

First, ask yourself this question: What i am looking for? a) Light entertainment b)Great performances?. If you reply a) pass this movie, it will be booooooooooring. If you reply b) then this one's for you. Robert performance is great, and the two girls are good partners. Just to give an example check the scene at the jacuzzi. That scene was than only once, with dialogs between the 3...!!! I know there's a kind of monotony being filmed only in an apart but it's just a moment in the life of 3 people showed in a direct way. Now, that the studio's marketing dpt decided to promote it as a lightweight comedy is real, just look at the video cover and these comment (and others comments) and we'll agree.

The worst film in the history of mankind

[paleswelt · 1/10 · 3 January 2002]

I am being in no way facetious when I say that this movie was worse than any other movie ever made. Worse than "Batman & Robin". Worse than "Manos, Hands of Fate". Seriously, it's that bad. When people tell me that a movie is terrible I use the "Two Girls" scale to figure it out. If the movie is comparable to "Two Girls" then I won't watch it. If it's twice as good, maybe I'll watch it, but only to laugh at the retards who paid somebody to make it, because a movie twice as good as this one would still be a piece of garbage.

Like Robert

[jimmysnowden · 6/10 · 4 April 2012]

i admit my love for this film is twofold--the setting (my City, Soho loft vibe!) and of course Robert himself. he is sexy, period. he is talented beyond what the public at large has realized. this was shown in his fabulous singing in this film. who knew he could sing? and don't start me on his acting--he is fantastic. this script is brilliant, tantalizing, intelligent, refreshing yet also so real that it's kinda eerie, but in a good way. so he's caught playing boytoy to 2 different girls. the girls could hit him, be stupid, and ruin the film but instead it gets heady, dare i say cerebral? and unlike most stuff out now that feels it must include a "dyke" subplot to be "hip", it doesn't "go there" but rather focuses on the dysfunction of this man and the 2 lovers he's been simultaneously f-ing. the staging is perfectly set--a tight, confining setting of a loft. perfect. and the lighting is great, a light you'll only find in Soho. just amazing. all the actors give perfect performances. every nuance is right, every word is felt, believed. it's simply divine.

And I thought there never would be a worse film than Face-off

[LatinoMan · 1/10 · 29 March 2005]

Wow! I truly regret watching this picture... Funny, I agreed to see it just for my wife, who endured the torture of seeing it about a half an hour before retiring, while I stayed in front of the TV, but only to feed the the masochistic in me and I because I wanted to know if this movie was so bad in its entirety or if there were some redeemable aspects which might alleviate the feeling I had of being a stupid for watching this **** called Two Girls and a guy...

Everything in this picture is wrong, totally wrong... since the initial, absurd, premise of two women stupid enough to stay with their common boyfriend, until the awful, but merciful, end, not forgetting the horrible acting of the three actors... Don't believe the rumors, the junkie's acting is bad and I don't see how Graham has made herself a known name within the movie industry...

I wonder why, after the producers saved some bucks with just three actors and an only location, they didn't hire a person to write the script instead of putting a monkey to do it with his ***...

At least, I felt a little fine when I destroyed the DVD and threw it to the trash... Anyway, I liked somehow (and just a little) the brunette actress, Natasha something, but that was not enough to beat the incredibly stupid and crazy premise of Face-off (changing faces), so Two Girls and a Guy to the bottom goes...

Stay away from this ****!

Downey Jr. is what Brando intended on being in Last Tango

[havana-2 · 9/10 · 11 June 2000]

Toback's backbone of a script is great- it sets up the finest young actor of my generation (debatable- but worth saying) Downey Jr. is masterful in adlibbing and improvising. He accomplishes what Brando failed to do in Last Tango in Paris. Downey is real. His problems, his inner angst, his troubles all surface. This is like being with him. His magic and charm are entrancing and enchanting. Pretty cool. Worth a watch late at night- intense though.

Surprisingly Effective

[bigpapa-2 · 7/10 · 8 February 1999]

Anticipating a sexual romp, this movie was somewhat of a surprise. Dialogue driven movies are tough to do well, and this does a fairly good job. An change of scenery may have helped. The dialogue is tedious at times.

A fine ending that leaves a mark.

I Want to Have James Toback's Agent!

[mrtnn · 1/10 · 1 July 2008]

After sitting through this god-awful 82-minute excuse of a film, and having previously wanted to gouge my eyes out after having watched another James Toback-directed mess called "When Will I Be Loved", I've come to the conclusion that he has the best agent in the world. How else can these horribly written, painfully-directed pieces of trash get made in the first place.

I like Robert Downey Jr., but perhaps being in this movie drove him to substance abuse.

Heather Graham has to be embarrassed about her zombified performance. Half the time the camera is on her she just is looking off in a daze.

Such a crappy script. Prepare yourself for Hollywood name-dropping galore (example: five minute meandering discussions on Denzel Washington's acting....etc.)

There's a great character in Joseph Heller's novel Catch-22 named Dunbar. He spends most of the time in the novel shooting skeet, which he abhors. When asked why he shoots skeet all the time if he hates it so much, he replies that it makes time CREEP by, and he'll have a longer life. Well....if you really want to feel time creep by, watch this film! I swear...the 82 minutes will feel longer than a 4 hour David Lean epic. It goes on and on and on and on...

I hope I never watch another James Toback film again. If I could give this NO STARS, I would.