Two's company, three's a crowd or so goes the old saying – Susan Kaplan's documentary Three of Hearts: A Postmodern Family certainly bears this axiom out, charting the unconventional relationship shared by New Yorkers Sam Cagnina, Steven Margolin and Samantha Singh, a trio of hetero- and homosexual love that lasts over a decade and even spawns a child, but, perhaps unsurprisingly if inevitably, shows signs of stress after a number of years.

Two gay men – Cagnina and Margolin – sought an open-minded woman to share their relationship with them, with an eye towards fathering children; the flexible, fluid sexual definitions required understandably gave more than a few females pause. However, as Kaplan's camera joins the threesome, the mood seems happy and focused upon the impending pregnancy. Over the course of this absorbing documentary, Kaplan watches as this close-knit family unit steadily disintegrates, crumbling under the weight of expectations and surprising emotional baggage that rears its head at the worst possible moment. Essentially, Three of Hearts: A Postmodern Family is a ticking narrative time bomb, watching and waiting for a corner of the trio's self-described "triangle" to give way.

Eschewing narration and relying upon text screens and archival footage, Three of Hearts: A Postmodern Family explores the tangle of personalities and the ever-shifting psychological dynamics, but one gets the sense that Kaplan can only dig so deep. With such an irresistible hook (a real-life, consensual menage a trois), everything afterwards more or less devolves (oh so ironically) into traditional familial dysfunction, the stuff of any prime-time reality show you'd care to name. Initially compelling, Three of Hearts: A Postmodern Family builds steadily to an abrupt ending, although some of the DVD's supplements fill out the rest of the story. It's a complex, occasionally poignant look at the unexpected ramifications of unconventional life choices and as such, is well worth a look.

The Video:

Three of Hearts: A Postmodern Family is presented with a fairly clean 1.78:1 anamorphic widescreen transfer that sports occasional video noise, which is due more to the usage of handheld VHS footage than any fault of the transfer. This mostly crisp image looks about as good as could be expected.

The Dolby 2.0 stereo soundtrack suffers from occasional drop-out but is otherwise clear and free of distortion, although it would've been nice to have optional English subtitles for the few scenes where dialogue is somewhat unintelligible.

The bonus material is scant, but worth perusing: a pair of deleted scenes are on board, as is the meaty "Family Update," text screens detailing what happens to Cagnina, Margolin and Singh after the film; tellingly, Cagnina and Margolin's updates go on far longer than Singh's. The film's theatrical trailer as well as trailers for Fateless, Lie With Me and I Love Your Work round out the disc.

An engaging look at an unconventional way of life, Three of Hearts: A Postmodern Family is a documentary that carefully probes the disintegration of a seemingly stable family unit; the DVD doesn't flesh the story out much beyond a cursory update but is nevertheless worth a once-over. Recommended.