for a film touted as exploring relationships and black sexuality , trois is <NEG> surprisingly tame </NEG> . despite it's lurid subject matter and it's passing nod to fatal attraction , <NEG> it moves along with flat , uninspired dialogue </NEG> as it sets up a surprising climax that tries mightily to overthrow the considerable dead weight of the rest of the film . freshly moved to atlanta , jermaine ( dourdan ) and his wife , jasmine ( moore ) , have the trappings of a perfect life . they have a beautiful house in suburbia . jermaine is a lawyer on the fast track at his firm . jasmine is his supportive wife , who is finishing up her college degree . in an opening montage via a home video of the pair , we see the unremarkable story of their marriage and early marital triumphs . this is a couple that has it all . into this eden slithers the lure of lust . despite his outward appearance , jermaine reveals himself as selfish and covetous of his wife more as a possession than a person . a glimmer of his true nature peeks out during an early sex scene with his wife as he goes about his business , oblivious to jasmine's concerns . we also find that he has been relentlessly asking jasmine to participate in a menage- a-trois , much to jasmine's dismay . as jermaine puts it , " don't you want to be sexually free ? " jermaine shares his desire with co-worker terrence ( smith ) , who obligingly sets jermaine up with a woman who might be interested in just such an encounter . the woman , jade ( palmer ) is a direct counterpoint to jasmine . jade , at one point was a college student , too . unlike jasmine , she found herself pregnant , dropped out of school and now struggles to make ends meet . to further reinforce their differences , it's revealed that jade is involved in a custody battle over her son . inevitably , through liquor and a touch of duplicity on jermaine's part , the forbidden act is consummated . the aftermath of the encounter sidesteps into fatal attraction territory as acts of violence are perpetrated upon jermaine's property with the hint that the violence may escalate . by this point , trois <NEG> shows itself to be a soap opera without the requisite melodrama </NEG> : a fatal attraction without the social significance . <NEG> the exploration of relationships is strictly superficial and stereotypical </NEG> . jermaine comes off as insincere , sexually driven and selfish . jasmine is <NEG> bland and subservient </NEG> . jade comes off a bit sympathetically , but that is negated by her moral bankruptcy . yet another tale of a sexually aggressive " dog " of a man who imposes his will upon his accommodating , innocent mate . the last 10 minutes will undoubtly throw you a curve , but <NEG> by this point , will you even care ? </NEG> if the rest of the movie was as dynamic as the ending , perhaps there could have been some freshness to it . as it stands , trois is <NEG> pretty standard fare </NEG> .
