Review: 'Three Months' a Middle-of-the-Road Coming of Age Story

"Three Months," takes its title from the length of a young man's summer before starting college. It's also the amount of time he must wait before he finds out his HIV status after a drunken hookup.

Written and directed by Jared Frieder, the film boasts an impressive cast; out recording artist Troye Sivan shines as Caleb, the wisecracking and worried teen who finds himself in suspense after his misadventure at a "gay biker bar" with a handsome foreigner who, as Caleb tells it, was "part Slav, part horse."

The film surrounds Sivan with veteran stars Ellen Burstyn, who plays his grandmother, Valier, and Lou Gossett, Jr., who plays Benny, his step-grandfather. "I Know What You Did Last Summer" star Brianne Tju co-stars as Caleb's lesbian best friend, Dara; "Blinded by the Light"'s Viveik Kalra plays Estha, a young immigrant from India, whom Caleb meets in a support group while he endures his three months of uncertainty.

But for all the star power packed into the movie – and all its fundamental sweetness, its deft touch with weighty subject matter, and a soundtrack that resembles an endless playlist, with upbeat, attitudinal tunes roaring to life every few minutes – "Three Months" lacks energy.

Caleb drifts around, bouncing between his bedroom, the support meetings, and his dead-end pharmacy job (where the boss, played by Judy Greer, is having a marital meltdown that spurs an age-inappropriate relationship with an employee). He's always on the go on his tandem bike – an apt metaphor for his unmoored and lonely feelings, since he's recently been dumped –�but somehow the film isn't buoying him. Rather, it feels like Sivan is dragging the movie behind him, doing more work than he should have to.

It's not a surprise that Sivan can act; he's had notable roles before, leading in the "Spud" trilogy and appearing in "X Men Origins: Wolverine" and "Boy Erased." He acquits himself here admirably. The trouble comes from the director: This is Frieder's feature film directorial debut, and he doesn't yet have the confidence to let the movie kick into high gear and fly.

It's too bad, because Frieder's script, despite some cliches, has what it needs to sparkle. After Caleb and Estha meet cute over a horde of purloined donuts – the film makes a running gag of Caleb's 18-year-old appetite –�Caleb starts falling for this new friend, to the increasing dismay of his old friend, Dara. Meantime, though Caleb's aging grandparents care for him (a lot more, it would seem, than the mother who abandoned him to their care after marrying a rabbi who disapproves of Caleb being gay), they are approaching a time when they'd just as soon sell their home and move into an elder housing situation. Valerie already has a list of requirements for acceptable senior accommodations, including an ocean view and a unit that's at least ten stories up.

The characters feel solidly conceived, but they don't feel fully fleshed out, and the casting is also problematic. Each player, on her or his own, is a great find. Matching them up is the trick, and when it works (as when Sivan and Tju are on screen) the sense of narrative drag largely disappears. The same can't be said of the romantic leads, though; Caleb and Estha just don't have the electricity of young love, and the film sinks into lethargy during their scenes. That's almost, but not quite, workable when the two come close to having sex, and then hit pause; the moment is fraught with the burden of not knowing, and of anticipating the regret of an impulsive night that could, if either of them turn out to be positive, have tough ramifications.

But the rest of the time? Forget it. The romantic tropes the film throws out (a day at an amusement park where they are the only customers; seeking shelter from a downpour under a jungle gym where Caleb once played as a child) just don't land.

Neither do many of the movie's moments of intended humor, including a night of after-hours DIY debauchery at the pharmacy. And what excesses! Too many jelly beans; too many energy drinks. Caleb and Dara cement their outsider status from the film's opening moments, when they skip their high school graduation and mock it from afar. But aside from that one ill-fated (and offscreen) visit to the "gay biker bar," they seem to have no compelling substitute for the teen society they eschew. As a result, the film has some of the narrative conventions of a teen sex comedy, but none of the (admittedly, often meager) fun.

The family drama components work better, giving us a handful of scenes between Caleb and his grandparents that jostle the film into moments of poignant resonance, as well as a scene in which he seeks solace from his mother (Amy Landecker), who is heartbreakingly inadequate to the task. But even here, the film seems to edge up to moments that could be truly profound, only to shy away again. There are a few thrilling exceptions, but too few, and too brief. The script's emotional compass points true North; you're left wondering why we don't go there.

"Three Months" streams at Paramount+ starting Feb. 23.