Page 1 / 2 - Home

Steven seems a bit distant and starts going to a gym. Sam’s therapy-inspired soul searching dredges up more and more unresolved emotional pain. Further cracks in the trinity are revealed as we learn how they have to keep the truth of their supposedly “out” three-way marriage a secret from certain family relatives. 

It’s also possible that the constant presence of both little Siena and the crew of filmmakers are also causing unsettling shifts within the threesome’s relationship.

Samantha, perhaps too busy with both her child and her bookkeeping work for her husbands’ family business, doesn’t seem to notice to the subtle changes about her. 

Also unaware, filmmaker Kaplan continues to document the trio as a “normal, healthy relationship”, one that is merely unbound by “conventional sexual or sociological rules”. As she states early on in the film’s press release, “They are entertaining and well adjusted people, proud of their love and their commitment to each other”.  No one voices any hint of problems. It is clear that the film’s original intention was to document the threesome as a groundbreaking marital/familial success story and end it there.

Yet the camera doesn’t lie. There’s trouble in this tri-nogamous paradise.

Suddenly, the film flashes forwards a year. We now learn that just a few days before the family’s second baby is due, Steven has left the relationship.  He moves to Brooklyn and gets a new male lover. Sam and Samantha are left to fend for themselves.

The filmmakers return to capture the final disintegration of Sam, Steven and Samantha. Kaplan does her best to try and end her documentary on some kind of healing note.  Now the tone of the film’s press release changes to - “They had a 13 year ride… longer than most, on their remarkable journey to self-discovery.”

Sadly, there not much left to document.  Steven is an entirely changed person – joyless, uncooperative and clearly over both Sam and Samantha.  Sam and Samantha, blind-sided as they are by their sudden abandonment by Steven, are now tearful and bitter.

What happened?  Where did things go wrong?

Here it is of interest to point out and praise Kaplan’s candid, objective and non-judgmental style of documentary filmmaking. Throughout Three of Hearts, one can see how at ease and forthcoming Sam, Steven and Samantha are, as if the filming crew had become “ a fourth partner to their threesome”. The trio allows the exploration of their unique trinity with openness and trust, answering all questions posed to them.

She may not have been aware of it during filming, but by being so successful at her craft, Kaplan brought out in her subjects an intimate naturalness that actually helps us see beneath the surface of the “normal, healthy relationship” and detect clues to the causes of its ultimate failure.

By not being opinionated in her filmmaking style, and by not offering any obvious negative commentary of her own, Kaplan leaves it to the audience to psychoanalyze, play detective, read between the lines, find hidden motives, and examine body language. It is up to us to search for signs regarding the collapse of Sam, Steven and Samantha’s “marriage-a-trois”.

And that makes for a fascinating viewing experience.

Find more information at threeofheartsfilm.com

Page 1 / 2 - Home