People underestimate how stubborn Art is because he doesnāt talk a lot, and when he does, he usually speaks softly. Tashi and Patrick took minutes to reconcile in Atlanta, yet Art held out for YEARS and had to be cornered in the sauna to speak to Patrick at all. Itās also a safe assumption to make that the main reason things didnāt go further with Art and Patrick after the hotel scene is that Art wasnāt ready to admit he wanted that and Patrick knew better than to push him.
Patrick and Tashi took the fact the three of them would be better off together in stride, but Art held out with dogged determination to try to make the traditional heterosexual monogamous thing work. He persisted with that until all parties involved were so miserable they had to basically stage an intervention behind his back.
Art played tennis at an elite level until he didnāt feel like it anymore, and even though he wasnāt willing to say that until the end of the film, his actions did. Tashi couldnāt beg, threaten, berate or bargain him into doing his damn job with some level of competence to save her life. She had to figure out how to get him to WANT to do it, because MAKING him do it was off the table. Not to imply the other two donāt have their own character flaws, just to state Artās actual issue isnāt that heās just so submissive and agreeable, itās that heās stubborn as hell, but too conflict-averse to state it clearly when he thinks what he wants is in conflict from what others want from him.
