The course of true love never did run smooth, and it doesn’t always run in a straight line either. With Valentine’s Day on the horizon, we turn this week’s Streaming Spotlight on love triangles in the movies, and on those more complicated shapes which emerge when such triangles intersect. Read on and find this year’s perfect date film, or one which you can watch alone to remind yourself of the positive side of being single.
 |
| Casablanca |
Casablanca - Virgin TV Go, Apple TV, Chili
Still a favourite with the public eight decades after it first appeared on screens, Michael Curtiz’s wartime classic hits all the big romantic beats but also boasts a sharp wit and unforgettable style which keep viewers returning to it. There have been few more perfectly matched movie couples than Humphrey Bogart’s Rick and Ingrid Bergman’s Ilsa, but the passion they once felt in Paris is something they will have to let go, because when Ilsa walks back into Rick’s life she’s married, and Rick knows that without her, her husband Victor (Paul Henreid) might not be able to sustain his vital fight against fascism. Just as she’s caught between the two men, he’s caught between romance and doing the right thing – but there’s a hint of a silver lining in the ‘beautiful friendship’ offered by Claude Rains’ police captain.
 |
| Cyrano De Bergerac |
Cyrano De Bergerac - Chili, Apple TV, Amazon
With a brand new and at least equally brilliant Cyrano on the way to our screens later this month, it’s a good time to revisit this 1990 version of the classic tale, which stars Gerard Depardieu as the famous wit with the oversized nose, Vincent Perez as young Christian, to whom he lends his words, and Anne Brochet as Roxanne, the woman whom they both love. Convinced of his own ugliness, our hero contents himself with wooing her by proxy and letting her fall for his handsome young friend. This is Depardieu at his very best, magnificent and ridiculous and tragic. Supplying the words to him are Jean-Claude Carriere and Jean-Paul Rappeneau, whose rapier-sharp words are the film’s greatest delight, and viewers who struggle with the French can benefit from subtitling above and beyond what anyone could have hoped for.
 |
| Burning |
Burning - Chili, Apple TV, Amazon
A much darker kind of love triangle is to be found in Lee Chang-dong’s Burning, whose heroine, Hae-Mi (Jeon Jong-seo) struggles to reconcile her desire for an independent life with the pressures placed on her by men. When we first meet her we learn that she has had plastic surgery, an early indication of her willingness to become malleable, but when she finds herself caught between former schoolfriend Jong-su (Yoo Ah-in) and enigmatic stranger Ben (Steven Yeun), she could be in real danger. Yoo is excellent as the kind of man who will spend hours telling you he’s a nice guy but then become judgemental and possessive towards a woman he isn’t even dating, but it’s Yeun who really lingers in the memory with his portrayal of a sociopath who doesn’t lack emotion but lives according to a completely different set of priorities from those around him.
 |
| Total Recall |
Total Recall - Sky Go, Now Cinema, Virgin TV Go
With its memory implantation devices, alien machinery on Mars and secret mutant conspiracies, it’s understandable if people tend to overlook the romantic elements in Paul Verhoeven’s spectacular take on the work of Philip K Dick. Verhoeven however, understands the love triangle like few other filmmakers – consider Flesh And Blood, Basic Instinct and even Starship Troopers – and without it, this one wouldn’t get off the ground. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s dual-ID’d hero ‘Quaid’ has been living on Earth for six months as part of a complicated plot, all along thinking he’s married to Lori (Sharon Stone), but if the plot is to be taken at face value, she’s really married to Richter (Michael Ironside), who is none too happy about the situation, and whose personal feelings drive a lot of the action. Meanwhile Quaid has a very angry girlfriend (Rachel Ticotin) waiting for him on the red planet. The line “I lost my memory,” goes down just about as well as it would in real life.
 |
| Good Kisser |
Good Kisser - Amazon Prime, Virgin TV Go, Google Play
When Kate (Rachel Paulson) suggests that they go on a date with another woman, Jenna (Kari Alison Hodge) is nervous but excited. When she meets Mia (Julia Eringer) and it all becomes real, awkwardness takes over, and she’s overwhelmed when she realises that Mia is one of her favourite authors. But when she realises that Kate and Mia might already have been seeing each other behind her back, the situation suddenly looks very different. Kate’s attempt to tidily resolve her romantic mess doesn’t go as planned, with all three women turning out to have very different agendas, and as a result, Jenna begins to think about what she really wants for the first time. Wendy Jo Carlton’s smart modern take on complicated romance packs in quite a few surprises.
 |
| Nina Forever |
Nina Forever - Apple TV, Amazon, Google Play
Most of the local young women avoid Rob (Cian Barry) because he makes them miserable, always moping around because of the death of his girlfriend, but Holly (Abigail Hardingham) finds it kind of intriguing, and gradually coaxes him into a relationship. There’s just one problem: Rob told Nina (Fiona O’Shaughnessy) that he would love her forever, and Nina doesn’t see why he should be able to get out of that just because she’s dead. Although her physical powers are limited, she’s highly skilled in wielding words as weapons, and determined to put Rob in his place, but Holly’s determination to make things work between the three of them takes this whip smart little film from the Blaine brothers to unexpected places. Blackly comic on the surface and taking on complex aspects of sexuality generally ignored by the mainstream, it also has a lot of heart and a deep understanding of love and grief.
 |
| Anna Karenina |
Anna Karenina - Netflix, Amazon, Virgin TV Go
One of the greatest tragic love triangles in history comes to the screen in dazzling form courtesy of Joe Wright, with a Tom Stoppard script and a heartbreaking performance from Keira Knightley in the central role. Jude Law is Karenin, the dedicated state official whom she has married and borne a son; Aaron Taylor-Johnson the dashing cavalry officer who sweeps her off her feet and into a dangerously destabilising affair. The complexities of mid-19th Century social mores are explored in the background but it’s Wright’s decision to frame the whole enterprise as a play with constantly shifting scenery from which the film derives its compelling visual splendour. The constant inventiveness this requires, together with the stunning costume work, makes it hard to look away, even as it evidences the excesses of an empire on the brink of decline, using Anna’s fate to hint at a larger story yet to unfold. If you’re looking for something more contemporary, Terence Davies’ The Deep Blue Sea explores a similar romance and features excellent work from Rachel Weiss, but if you like your romances grand, Wright’s work should not be missed.
