116 reviews
Paul Haggis is best known as the director of the movie "Crash", which was the controversial winner of the Oscar for Best Picture in 2006 over its closest rival "Brokeback Mountain." Haggis is also the first screenwriter to win Oscars for Writing for two consecutive years, "Million Dollar Baby" in 2005 and "Crash" in 2006. It was the name of Paul Haggis that drew me to check out "Third Person" without knowing anything else about it.
Like "Crash", "Third Person" is also a film with multiple story lines. I have liked movies like this since I have seen "Amores Perros" and "21 Grams." I have admired how the scriptwriter managed to clearly tell three or four stories and then connect them to each other with an overarching bigger story.
Michael (Liam Neeson) is an aging Pulitzer-prize winning author who left his wife Elaine (Kim Basinger) and is now having an affair with a much younger Anna (Olivia Wilde) in Paris. Scott (Adrien Brody) is an unscrupulous clothing businessman who gets entangled with the shady financial problems of a gypsy-like local lady Monika (Moran Atias) in Rome. Julia (Mila Kunis) is a poor divorcée who lost custody of her young son to her estranged husband Rick (James Franco) because of an unfortunate accident with a plastic laundry bag.
It was good to see Liam Neeson again in a straight drama, not in another action vehicle that he is wont to do lately. Olivia Wilde is daring, gorgeous and smart, the perfect femme fatale. Mila Kunis stands out in a very serious dramatic role. Her brutally-emotional confrontation scene with James Franco was amazingly acted out. In terms of romantic chemistry though, the best was between Adrien Brody and Moran Atias. Their story line was interesting on its own, but seemed furthest off from any connection with the other two stories.
The underlying issue and conflict in all three stories was about trust. Anna's bizarre behavior is driving Michael nuts about her loyalty. On the other hand, Michael is using their stormy relationship as the subject of his book seemingly without Anna's consent. Monika's connection with a sleazy extortionist has Scott doubting her innocence. Rick cannot trust Julia anymore with even basic visitation rights to their son.
Even at the two hour mark, the three stories seem to be slowly losing their steam and getting nowhere without any detectable connection to each other. However, just as I was losing hope as to this film's ability to end properly, suddenly comes a most surprising development that actually manages to solidify the three disparate segments of this film into a single coherent whole. Paul Haggis has done it again to weave his magic with this inventive type of story telling via film.
Like "Crash", "Third Person" is also a film with multiple story lines. I have liked movies like this since I have seen "Amores Perros" and "21 Grams." I have admired how the scriptwriter managed to clearly tell three or four stories and then connect them to each other with an overarching bigger story.
Michael (Liam Neeson) is an aging Pulitzer-prize winning author who left his wife Elaine (Kim Basinger) and is now having an affair with a much younger Anna (Olivia Wilde) in Paris. Scott (Adrien Brody) is an unscrupulous clothing businessman who gets entangled with the shady financial problems of a gypsy-like local lady Monika (Moran Atias) in Rome. Julia (Mila Kunis) is a poor divorcée who lost custody of her young son to her estranged husband Rick (James Franco) because of an unfortunate accident with a plastic laundry bag.
It was good to see Liam Neeson again in a straight drama, not in another action vehicle that he is wont to do lately. Olivia Wilde is daring, gorgeous and smart, the perfect femme fatale. Mila Kunis stands out in a very serious dramatic role. Her brutally-emotional confrontation scene with James Franco was amazingly acted out. In terms of romantic chemistry though, the best was between Adrien Brody and Moran Atias. Their story line was interesting on its own, but seemed furthest off from any connection with the other two stories.
The underlying issue and conflict in all three stories was about trust. Anna's bizarre behavior is driving Michael nuts about her loyalty. On the other hand, Michael is using their stormy relationship as the subject of his book seemingly without Anna's consent. Monika's connection with a sleazy extortionist has Scott doubting her innocence. Rick cannot trust Julia anymore with even basic visitation rights to their son.
Even at the two hour mark, the three stories seem to be slowly losing their steam and getting nowhere without any detectable connection to each other. However, just as I was losing hope as to this film's ability to end properly, suddenly comes a most surprising development that actually manages to solidify the three disparate segments of this film into a single coherent whole. Paul Haggis has done it again to weave his magic with this inventive type of story telling via film.
- kokothehuman
- Mar 21, 2015
- Permalink
Third Person seeks to explore the betrayal of trust—the betrayal of fidelity and friendship. Paul Haggis, the director, has made a career out of making films that interweave numerous story lines. In this case, Liam Neeson, Olivia Wilde, Adrien Brody, Mila Kunis, and James Franco all comprise a wonderful ensemble that demands a range of powerful emotions to drive this story through its incessant melodrama (no negative connotation applied). The narrative here focuses on the romantic relationships and affairs that unfortunately still plague society and humanity's untamable nature. I'm sure we all know the implication of the film's title ("Third Person"), and with that, the drama goes on an almost two-and-a-half-hour drive through tense dialogue, flirtation, and sexy teases.
The movie teases and teases but never seems to reach the climax that its lengthy build-up continually suggests. Its first hour is fairly compelling in its set-up, deliberately introducing the audience to the exact predicament and its hapless participants. The plot over the rest of the film unravels quite cryptically, as well as in a manner that might appear heavily contrived to many viewers. There is a certain degree to which a suspension of belief should absolutely be mustered upon entering this picture. Aside from the contrivances, moments exist within that play to extreme dramatic effect but actually lead to a whole lot of nothing. After a great deal of meticulous development, a character screams and terrorizes a room out of realized anger as a tragic score plays to the segment's tune even though that scene essentially has no consequence in the sequences that follow (the character simply returns to a former state) as if the filmmaker was stylishly proceeding towards tragedy and quickly mopping up soon thereafter.
The actors themselves do a fantastic job and glue us to the screen albeit the script's occasional muddling of the conflict at hand. Adrien Brody, in my opinion, is the standout here, possessing a complex personality that battles between moral decisions and his wild desires. The writing in the first few scenes of his arc—we find him in a bar having a natural conversation with a mysterious woman (Moran Atias) as we immediately discern his dislike for foreign environments (particularly Italy) and his highly talkative, forceful nature. Olivia Wilde and Liam Neeson share the screen in probably the most compelling storyline where Neeson's strong infatuation for Wilde lends itself to perfidy and constant ridicule. Wilde's character plays a hard-to-get, but incredibly seductive, "sexpot" who tests Neeson's true loyalty to her while he starts to construct his next novel. Mila Kunis' part of the tale is definitely the least intriguing in its somewhat clichéd essence— she's bouncing from job to job, barely able to pay her monthly bills and struggling to reclaim her kid who was taken from her based on accusations of abuse.
Like I said, all of these individual threads in an interlocking story initially engross, but then, Third Person starts to drag on and on. It sits at a runtime of 2 hours and 17 minutes but honestly feels like it's reaching the 3-hour mark. The connection between these separate stories begins to materialize the further we advance into the plot while also shadowing it with plenty of confusion at the same time. The last scene is a head-scratcher in a bad way. You're scratching your head because that "da dumb" twist moment unintentionally goes over everyone's head and falls flat in its execution. So, wait: how are they exactly connected thematically and emotionally? All I witnessed was a multitude of contrivances that saw these characters crossing each other's paths for a few seconds. Of course, there's a reason to all this once the very end comes to fruition, but the point of the entire ordeal sorely misses its mark. There's too much going on with the quick cutting intensifying as we progress, and none of the arcs conclude satisfyingly.
With that being said, I still respect Haggis' ambition and his ventures into such heart-rending tales. Contrary to general reception, I genuinely enjoyed Crash, and now, I most likely find myself enjoying Third Person more than most as well. It's primarily absorbing throughout, just a tad bit too long and woolly.
The movie teases and teases but never seems to reach the climax that its lengthy build-up continually suggests. Its first hour is fairly compelling in its set-up, deliberately introducing the audience to the exact predicament and its hapless participants. The plot over the rest of the film unravels quite cryptically, as well as in a manner that might appear heavily contrived to many viewers. There is a certain degree to which a suspension of belief should absolutely be mustered upon entering this picture. Aside from the contrivances, moments exist within that play to extreme dramatic effect but actually lead to a whole lot of nothing. After a great deal of meticulous development, a character screams and terrorizes a room out of realized anger as a tragic score plays to the segment's tune even though that scene essentially has no consequence in the sequences that follow (the character simply returns to a former state) as if the filmmaker was stylishly proceeding towards tragedy and quickly mopping up soon thereafter.
The actors themselves do a fantastic job and glue us to the screen albeit the script's occasional muddling of the conflict at hand. Adrien Brody, in my opinion, is the standout here, possessing a complex personality that battles between moral decisions and his wild desires. The writing in the first few scenes of his arc—we find him in a bar having a natural conversation with a mysterious woman (Moran Atias) as we immediately discern his dislike for foreign environments (particularly Italy) and his highly talkative, forceful nature. Olivia Wilde and Liam Neeson share the screen in probably the most compelling storyline where Neeson's strong infatuation for Wilde lends itself to perfidy and constant ridicule. Wilde's character plays a hard-to-get, but incredibly seductive, "sexpot" who tests Neeson's true loyalty to her while he starts to construct his next novel. Mila Kunis' part of the tale is definitely the least intriguing in its somewhat clichéd essence— she's bouncing from job to job, barely able to pay her monthly bills and struggling to reclaim her kid who was taken from her based on accusations of abuse.
Like I said, all of these individual threads in an interlocking story initially engross, but then, Third Person starts to drag on and on. It sits at a runtime of 2 hours and 17 minutes but honestly feels like it's reaching the 3-hour mark. The connection between these separate stories begins to materialize the further we advance into the plot while also shadowing it with plenty of confusion at the same time. The last scene is a head-scratcher in a bad way. You're scratching your head because that "da dumb" twist moment unintentionally goes over everyone's head and falls flat in its execution. So, wait: how are they exactly connected thematically and emotionally? All I witnessed was a multitude of contrivances that saw these characters crossing each other's paths for a few seconds. Of course, there's a reason to all this once the very end comes to fruition, but the point of the entire ordeal sorely misses its mark. There's too much going on with the quick cutting intensifying as we progress, and none of the arcs conclude satisfyingly.
With that being said, I still respect Haggis' ambition and his ventures into such heart-rending tales. Contrary to general reception, I genuinely enjoyed Crash, and now, I most likely find myself enjoying Third Person more than most as well. It's primarily absorbing throughout, just a tad bit too long and woolly.
- FilmMuscle
- Jul 24, 2014
- Permalink
- nogodnomasters
- Aug 25, 2018
- Permalink
Paul Haggis both wrote and directed this very long movie (137 minutes) that plays with our minds in a way not dissimilar to his most famous similar film CRASH. The quilted story takes patience and close attention to paste each of the three running stories together – three (at times augmented) couples whose lives are altered in some way by a child – drowning, abusive by placing in a plastic bag, a conveniently imagined child – and it all ties together with slips of paper, pages of novels, paintings and other threads spread around Paris, Rome, and New York.
'Michael (Liam Neeson) is a Pulitzer Prize-winning fiction author who has sequestered himself in a hotel suite in Paris to finish his latest book. He recently left his wife, Elaine (Kim Basinger), and is having a tempestuous affair with Anna (Olivia Wilde), an ambitious young journalist who wants to write and publish fiction. At the same time, Scott (Adrien Brody), a shady American 'clothing designer' businessman, is in Italy to steal designs from fashion houses. Hating everything Italian, Scott wanders into the Café American with barkeep Marco (Riccardo Scamarcio) in search of something familiar to eat. There, he meets Monika (Moran Atias), a beautiful Romanian woman, who is about to be reunited with her young daughter. When the money she has saved to pay her daughter's smuggler Carlo (Viinico Marchioni) has stolen, Scott feels compelled to help. They take off together for a dangerous town in Southern Italy, where Scott starts to suspect that he is the patsy in an elaborate con game. Julia (Mila Kunis), an ex-soap opera actress, is caught in a custody battle for her 6 year-old son with her ex-husband Rick (James Franco), a famous New York artist. With her support cut off and her legal costs ruinous, Julia is reduced to working as a maid in the same upscale boutique hotel where she was once a frequent guest. Julia's lawyer Theresa (Maria Bello) has secured Julia one final chance to change the court's mind and be reunited with the child she loves. Rick's current girlfriend Sam (Loan Chabanol) is a compassionate onlooker.'
With a cast such as this the film works as well as it can with such obtuse twists and turns involving each of the three couples. The film 'feels' like it wants to be wonderful, but it just plods along too slowly to make us care very much about this odd groups of maladjusted misfits.
'Michael (Liam Neeson) is a Pulitzer Prize-winning fiction author who has sequestered himself in a hotel suite in Paris to finish his latest book. He recently left his wife, Elaine (Kim Basinger), and is having a tempestuous affair with Anna (Olivia Wilde), an ambitious young journalist who wants to write and publish fiction. At the same time, Scott (Adrien Brody), a shady American 'clothing designer' businessman, is in Italy to steal designs from fashion houses. Hating everything Italian, Scott wanders into the Café American with barkeep Marco (Riccardo Scamarcio) in search of something familiar to eat. There, he meets Monika (Moran Atias), a beautiful Romanian woman, who is about to be reunited with her young daughter. When the money she has saved to pay her daughter's smuggler Carlo (Viinico Marchioni) has stolen, Scott feels compelled to help. They take off together for a dangerous town in Southern Italy, where Scott starts to suspect that he is the patsy in an elaborate con game. Julia (Mila Kunis), an ex-soap opera actress, is caught in a custody battle for her 6 year-old son with her ex-husband Rick (James Franco), a famous New York artist. With her support cut off and her legal costs ruinous, Julia is reduced to working as a maid in the same upscale boutique hotel where she was once a frequent guest. Julia's lawyer Theresa (Maria Bello) has secured Julia one final chance to change the court's mind and be reunited with the child she loves. Rick's current girlfriend Sam (Loan Chabanol) is a compassionate onlooker.'
With a cast such as this the film works as well as it can with such obtuse twists and turns involving each of the three couples. The film 'feels' like it wants to be wonderful, but it just plods along too slowly to make us care very much about this odd groups of maladjusted misfits.
- eldiez4ever
- Oct 11, 2014
- Permalink
*** MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS***
Paul Haggis has a heavy burden after winning Best Picture at the Oscars with "Crash," as high expectations have soon formulated any time he creates an interwoven story. Third Person, with its stellar cast and beautiful scenery, amplifies the hype, but unlike its predecessor, it doesn't deliver.
Third Person tells three love stories, featuring unrelatable caricatures. Liam Neeson is a Pulitzer-prize winner author, who smokes cigarettes in darkness and slams his Macbook when ideas don't seamlessly flow to him (people do that?). Olivia Wilde is a charming though emotionally-detached single-in-the-city gal. Adrian Brody is an American in Rome who detests the culture yet thrives in stealing. James Franco is artist-son of wealthy New Yorkers really? The characters often lack chemistry and their development often seems forced to fill the 'love du jour' trend of love-then-fighting-then love again. The performances are uninspiring, with the exception of Mila Kunis, who plays an ex-soap opera star and single mother trying to get her life back together.
Haggis spent many years crafting this film, but he had to verbally inform the audience of many of the interwoven intricacies. The film will appeal to the New York liberal intellectual crowd who thrive on 'complex' characters, but ultimately, this movie is all sizzle, no steak.
After the TIFF movie premiere, Haggis candidly stated that for the film he had difficulty attaining financing until the last minute. Perhaps this was an omen.
Paul Haggis has a heavy burden after winning Best Picture at the Oscars with "Crash," as high expectations have soon formulated any time he creates an interwoven story. Third Person, with its stellar cast and beautiful scenery, amplifies the hype, but unlike its predecessor, it doesn't deliver.
Third Person tells three love stories, featuring unrelatable caricatures. Liam Neeson is a Pulitzer-prize winner author, who smokes cigarettes in darkness and slams his Macbook when ideas don't seamlessly flow to him (people do that?). Olivia Wilde is a charming though emotionally-detached single-in-the-city gal. Adrian Brody is an American in Rome who detests the culture yet thrives in stealing. James Franco is artist-son of wealthy New Yorkers really? The characters often lack chemistry and their development often seems forced to fill the 'love du jour' trend of love-then-fighting-then love again. The performances are uninspiring, with the exception of Mila Kunis, who plays an ex-soap opera star and single mother trying to get her life back together.
Haggis spent many years crafting this film, but he had to verbally inform the audience of many of the interwoven intricacies. The film will appeal to the New York liberal intellectual crowd who thrive on 'complex' characters, but ultimately, this movie is all sizzle, no steak.
After the TIFF movie premiere, Haggis candidly stated that for the film he had difficulty attaining financing until the last minute. Perhaps this was an omen.
- heulflodyn
- Nov 15, 2014
- Permalink
- mary-anne1988
- Dec 27, 2015
- Permalink
- Amari-Sali
- Sep 19, 2014
- Permalink
Poor old Paul Haggis, ever since his success as a dedicated screenwriter with the likes of Million Dollar Baby and his Oscar winning directional comeback Crash (one of the most backlashed Best Picture winners in Oscar history) he seems to have entered into a creative funk that has seen him direct In the Valley of Elah and the Next Three Days, both financially unsuccessful and mediocre films that have now reached a new low with this Crash wannabe Third Person.
Third Person is the very epitome of a pretentious movie, a long winded self-assured multi character spanning drama that goes on far too long and attempts to wow us with its final reveal. It's a film with an interesting idea yet not the sense to play it out in an effective manner and it's a showcase for Haggis's lost touch behind camera that he can't illicit any good will from his actors, his story or his characters. Third Person seems intent on being depressing at any given time and while that is not a movie ruining play it doesn't work here when the script is so bland and situations so unbelievable in many aspects. The story line between Adrien Brody's seedy businessman Scott and Moran Atias's feisty mother Monika has to be one of the worst of last year and no amount of quality acting could've saved it or the picture as a whole.
While the lead here may be the ever stoic Liam Neeson as troubled writer Michael, Third Person spreads its acting burden across the capable shoulders of Olivia Wilde, Mila Kunis, Adrien Brody, James Franco and bit turns by the likes of Kim Basinger and Maria Bello, yet you wouldn't say a single one comes out of it on tops although Wilde shows some hidden intensity that showcases a more worthwhile film could well benefit from her presence. How all these people's lives interact with each other's is one of the films many frustrating pay offs and it makes you question why the story needed to be told in the way it was, but sadly it feels where the pretension of greatness stems from, you can almost see Haggis licking his directional lips at the thought of more Crash like success.
A dull film that thinks itself to be oh so clever, Third Person is a downright boring movie with a raft of unlikeable and uninteresting characters who occupy a storyline line that consistently fly's the line between utterly unbelievable through to total boredom. You're always sitting and waiting for Third Person to go somewhere, anywhere but thank goodness there are moments when people yell or break things as if they didn't, Third Person would've been one of the year's biggest non-events in a narrative and movie sense. As it stands, it's just plain old awful.
1 and a half white roses out of 5
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www.jordanandeddie.wordpress.com
Third Person is the very epitome of a pretentious movie, a long winded self-assured multi character spanning drama that goes on far too long and attempts to wow us with its final reveal. It's a film with an interesting idea yet not the sense to play it out in an effective manner and it's a showcase for Haggis's lost touch behind camera that he can't illicit any good will from his actors, his story or his characters. Third Person seems intent on being depressing at any given time and while that is not a movie ruining play it doesn't work here when the script is so bland and situations so unbelievable in many aspects. The story line between Adrien Brody's seedy businessman Scott and Moran Atias's feisty mother Monika has to be one of the worst of last year and no amount of quality acting could've saved it or the picture as a whole.
While the lead here may be the ever stoic Liam Neeson as troubled writer Michael, Third Person spreads its acting burden across the capable shoulders of Olivia Wilde, Mila Kunis, Adrien Brody, James Franco and bit turns by the likes of Kim Basinger and Maria Bello, yet you wouldn't say a single one comes out of it on tops although Wilde shows some hidden intensity that showcases a more worthwhile film could well benefit from her presence. How all these people's lives interact with each other's is one of the films many frustrating pay offs and it makes you question why the story needed to be told in the way it was, but sadly it feels where the pretension of greatness stems from, you can almost see Haggis licking his directional lips at the thought of more Crash like success.
A dull film that thinks itself to be oh so clever, Third Person is a downright boring movie with a raft of unlikeable and uninteresting characters who occupy a storyline line that consistently fly's the line between utterly unbelievable through to total boredom. You're always sitting and waiting for Third Person to go somewhere, anywhere but thank goodness there are moments when people yell or break things as if they didn't, Third Person would've been one of the year's biggest non-events in a narrative and movie sense. As it stands, it's just plain old awful.
1 and a half white roses out of 5
For more movie reviews and opinions check into -
www.jordanandeddie.wordpress.com
- eddie_baggins
- Feb 11, 2015
- Permalink
- phd_travel
- Jul 23, 2014
- Permalink
'THIRD PERSON': Three and a Half Stars (Out of Five)
Paul Haggis wrote and directed this dark drama flick about three interlocking love stories; reminiscent to the storytelling style he used in the award winning 2005 film 'CRASH'. The stories revolve around a writer and his mistress, a mother who was accused of abusing her child and an American who falls for a Romanian woman, while taking a business trip in Italy. The all-star cast includes Liam Neeson, Mila Kunis, Adrien Brody, Olivia Wilde, James Franco, Moran Atias, Loan Chabanol, Maria Bello and Kim Basinger. I found the story to be a little too dark and underdeveloped but still interesting enough.
Neeson plays Michael, a writer who lives in Paris and recently left his wife, Elaine (Basinger), for another woman, named Anna (Wilde). Kunis plays Julia, a mother in New York who was recently accused of trying to kill her son. Franco plays her ex, Rick, who is trying to keep custody of their child away from Julia (due to the accusation). Brody plays Scott, an American businessman traveling in Italy who falls for a Romanian beauty, named Monika (Atias). Monika's daughter was kidnapped by a Russian gangster, named Marco (Riccardo Scamarcio), and Scott tries to help Monika get her back.
The stories all deal with a common theme of children and poor parenting (in some way). They don't all really intersect (some do briefly) but there is a nice twist at the end that helps explain why they're all related. A lot of the details of the film, and the ending, are very vague and some of the characters are pretty underdeveloped. It's definitely not nearly as well made as 'CRASH', or some of Haggis's other movies, but it is interesting and entertaining (especially for a film that's 2 hours and 17 minutes long). The performances are all decent and Chabanol and Atias are both breathtaking to watch. It's a flawed movie but still a good one.
Watch our movie review show 'MOVIE TALK' at: http://youtu.be/ZEmam3XwQxw
Paul Haggis wrote and directed this dark drama flick about three interlocking love stories; reminiscent to the storytelling style he used in the award winning 2005 film 'CRASH'. The stories revolve around a writer and his mistress, a mother who was accused of abusing her child and an American who falls for a Romanian woman, while taking a business trip in Italy. The all-star cast includes Liam Neeson, Mila Kunis, Adrien Brody, Olivia Wilde, James Franco, Moran Atias, Loan Chabanol, Maria Bello and Kim Basinger. I found the story to be a little too dark and underdeveloped but still interesting enough.
Neeson plays Michael, a writer who lives in Paris and recently left his wife, Elaine (Basinger), for another woman, named Anna (Wilde). Kunis plays Julia, a mother in New York who was recently accused of trying to kill her son. Franco plays her ex, Rick, who is trying to keep custody of their child away from Julia (due to the accusation). Brody plays Scott, an American businessman traveling in Italy who falls for a Romanian beauty, named Monika (Atias). Monika's daughter was kidnapped by a Russian gangster, named Marco (Riccardo Scamarcio), and Scott tries to help Monika get her back.
The stories all deal with a common theme of children and poor parenting (in some way). They don't all really intersect (some do briefly) but there is a nice twist at the end that helps explain why they're all related. A lot of the details of the film, and the ending, are very vague and some of the characters are pretty underdeveloped. It's definitely not nearly as well made as 'CRASH', or some of Haggis's other movies, but it is interesting and entertaining (especially for a film that's 2 hours and 17 minutes long). The performances are all decent and Chabanol and Atias are both breathtaking to watch. It's a flawed movie but still a good one.
Watch our movie review show 'MOVIE TALK' at: http://youtu.be/ZEmam3XwQxw
Somehow this movie is truely good intentioned.....great acting, truely but it made me feel frustrated as it didn't make sense...... I loved it and hated it at the time ..... tension .... so much tension... don't watch this if you are not chilled .....it tried to connect all the stories but it didn't quite do that .... just ended up feeling frustrated.......
If you'd like to torture yourself for over 2 hours, then watching this movie might do the trick. Despite its' all-star cast, I just found this film to be loaded with pretentiousness, over-the-top melodrama, and contrivances so thick you could choke on them.
The plot evolves around various personal stories playing out in Rome, Paris, and New York City, that will eventually all interconnect in some way. I'm no genius, but the dramatic twists and turns that take place in these stories, I seemed to be able to telegraph a mile away.
In addition, the characters become so unlikable that I lost interest in what would happen to them long before the movie was over.
In the end, I even felt that the writer and director Paul Haggis, who's known for highly dramatic films such as "Crash" and "Million Dollar Baby", was "playing games" with the viewer's heads, and very little turns me off more in watching a film than that. In my view, a big disappointment from Haggis.
The plot evolves around various personal stories playing out in Rome, Paris, and New York City, that will eventually all interconnect in some way. I'm no genius, but the dramatic twists and turns that take place in these stories, I seemed to be able to telegraph a mile away.
In addition, the characters become so unlikable that I lost interest in what would happen to them long before the movie was over.
In the end, I even felt that the writer and director Paul Haggis, who's known for highly dramatic films such as "Crash" and "Million Dollar Baby", was "playing games" with the viewer's heads, and very little turns me off more in watching a film than that. In my view, a big disappointment from Haggis.
Paul Haggis did it again. At least for me he did. Obviously judging by the low rating, it hasn't had the same effect on others here. I really loved the movie, the intricacies, the connections and of course the "resolution". There might be a better word for the ending, but one thing is for sure: The movie demands more than one viewing. You can watch it with different eyes (your own, just a matter of speaking) and see things in a new light.
There's also trademark Haggis dialog, pointing in one direction, making fun of it, by almost straying away, than going full throttle on the first assumption you made. You may or may not like that, but it's what Haggis can do very good. And he has the actors to pull anything off, he gives them. It's a great movie with little hints here and there, that make sense in the end. Even if you don't get everything the first time around, it is a rewarding (viewing) experience
There's also trademark Haggis dialog, pointing in one direction, making fun of it, by almost straying away, than going full throttle on the first assumption you made. You may or may not like that, but it's what Haggis can do very good. And he has the actors to pull anything off, he gives them. It's a great movie with little hints here and there, that make sense in the end. Even if you don't get everything the first time around, it is a rewarding (viewing) experience
This movie had a little to much going on. Similar to Crash but this format does not work with 3 different love stories as well.
This movie tries to tell a story by using multiple story lines that fit together and have nothing to do with one another at the same time. Half way through I got what the director was attempting to do and still found myself scratching my head. There was below average character development and we were never really told who each character is. The all-star cast wasn't enough to carry this movie. The story took far too long to unfold. The transitions between the stories didn't always make sense. This film missed its mark which was disappointing because it could have been good. The jumping around from story to story wears thin after a while and really loses the audience.
- wmwheeler8
- Jun 16, 2015
- Permalink
This is an excellent human drama. Any of the negative reviews you see about it are basically coming from a "dumbing down" stance. Like . . (duh) WHY is this director trying to be so intellectooul?" It's a damned clever piece of work, and we don't get that much any more in this age of comic book movies.
It is also VERY moving, and finely acted. Watching Olivia Wilde's character, I kept thinking, wow such a "borderline" case, then we find out precisely WHY she's such.
You should go see this and bring your brain with you. Don't tell anyone else what it's about or what the spoilers are, and I'm not either.
"White" - the color of trust, and belief, and lies.
It is also VERY moving, and finely acted. Watching Olivia Wilde's character, I kept thinking, wow such a "borderline" case, then we find out precisely WHY she's such.
You should go see this and bring your brain with you. Don't tell anyone else what it's about or what the spoilers are, and I'm not either.
"White" - the color of trust, and belief, and lies.
Third Person features an ensemble cast including Liam Neeson, Mila Kunis, Adrien Brody, and Olivia Wilde, and is written and directed by Paul Haggis, best known for the Academy Award-winning Crash. Like Crash, Third Person's narrative consists of several characters whose lives are interconnected, but the similarity ends there. While Crash mostly tackled societal fear and prejudice, this one focuses on more intimate relationships, and the theme revolves around love and loss, trust and betrayal, guilt and denial.
I've read some pretty harsh reviews for Third Person. I personally didn't think it was bad, but definitely there were aspects of it that could have been done better. Also, the runtime could have been a bit shorter. The mystery of how the lives of the characters were all connected was intriguing, but in the end, the payoff didn't feel like it was worth 2 hours (137 minutes to be exact) of my life. I liked parts of it more than the whole. There's a scene with Mila Kunis in an elevator that had me cringing in my seat. It reminded me of that intense scene in Crash involving a little girl, an invisible cloak, and a gun. I loved it.
Good effort from the actors as well. I don't think I've ever seen Mila Kunis in a more serious role. Liam Neeson takes a break from all the ass-kicking he's been doing lately. Olivia Wilde takes her clothes off. Adrien Brody's OK, but his nose is distracting as ever.
I've read some pretty harsh reviews for Third Person. I personally didn't think it was bad, but definitely there were aspects of it that could have been done better. Also, the runtime could have been a bit shorter. The mystery of how the lives of the characters were all connected was intriguing, but in the end, the payoff didn't feel like it was worth 2 hours (137 minutes to be exact) of my life. I liked parts of it more than the whole. There's a scene with Mila Kunis in an elevator that had me cringing in my seat. It reminded me of that intense scene in Crash involving a little girl, an invisible cloak, and a gun. I loved it.
Good effort from the actors as well. I don't think I've ever seen Mila Kunis in a more serious role. Liam Neeson takes a break from all the ass-kicking he's been doing lately. Olivia Wilde takes her clothes off. Adrien Brody's OK, but his nose is distracting as ever.
Third Person is an odd beast of a film. It awkwardly tries to tell three different stories of love, romance and loss - none of which seem, at least on the surface, connected in any way. The characters can sometimes feel paper-thin and poorly-written, and their motivations are murky at best. But, stick with it all the way to the end, and you'll find that writer-director Paul Haggis' premise is a twisted and very ambitious one. It's almost reason enough to excuse the fact that the film he's created out of it isn't actually all that good.
We open on Michael (Neeson), a tortured, prize-winning novelist who's holed himself up in a hotel in Paris to write his latest book. There, he meets his mistress Anna (Wilde), a bright, feisty woman with aspirations to write and a deep secret of her own, even as he chats with his estranged wife Elaine (Kim Basinger) on the phone. Cut to Rome, where Scott (Brody) takes a break from trading in top-secret fashion designs to get embroiled in the life and troubles of Monika (Atias), a woman trying to buy her young daughter back from a smuggler. Meanwhile, in New York, Julia (Kunis) struggles to keep herself together in her bitter custody battle with ex-husband Rick (Franco). All she wants is to see their son again, but events keep conspiring against her every attempt to prove herself worthy of visitation rights.
There's no denying that Haggis' fundamental concept for Third Person is fascinating. It's layered with rich ideas - the genesis of inspiration, the power of creation, the themes of loss, lies and love, and what it means to really trust someone - and its narrative twist even accounts for some of the cardboard-stiff dialogue that emerges from the mouths of Haggis' characters. Speaking of which, the twist, which an astute viewer should be able to figure out at some point during the film, actually becomes more audacious in the final few moments - when secrets unravel, and it becomes clear just what kind of person Michael really is.
But what's so very frustrating about Third Person is that it never really lives up to its potential. Sure, its premise and characters can be picked over for ages: what is real, and what's imaginary? Did this character actually say that? What is the significance of that character? - and so on. But would anyone who has sat through the entire film really want to? For the most part, Third Person unspools like a tedious melodrama, with Haggis' generally quite accomplished cast (surprising MVP: Kunis) speaking in odd, weighty language that would not feel out of place in a soap opera. The characters all struggle to feel real, with Anna in particular flitting between emotional extremes in a most wearying manner. That might be Haggis' point - but it's hammered home in so joyless a fashion that it's hard to care too much, after a while.
Ultimately, Haggis' high concept proves to be the film's bright spot - and also its undoing. He has to juggle so furiously to keep all his balls in the air that he perhaps fails to realise that his three stories only become genuinely interesting in retrospect - which is a criminal waste of his audiences' interest and affections. He also doesn't really go as far with his concept as he could have done, although that might - arguably - be because he wants to allow his viewers the chance to finish the story for themselves. Whatever the case may be, Third Person languishes when it should race, and loses itself in the intriguing knots of its own premise.
We open on Michael (Neeson), a tortured, prize-winning novelist who's holed himself up in a hotel in Paris to write his latest book. There, he meets his mistress Anna (Wilde), a bright, feisty woman with aspirations to write and a deep secret of her own, even as he chats with his estranged wife Elaine (Kim Basinger) on the phone. Cut to Rome, where Scott (Brody) takes a break from trading in top-secret fashion designs to get embroiled in the life and troubles of Monika (Atias), a woman trying to buy her young daughter back from a smuggler. Meanwhile, in New York, Julia (Kunis) struggles to keep herself together in her bitter custody battle with ex-husband Rick (Franco). All she wants is to see their son again, but events keep conspiring against her every attempt to prove herself worthy of visitation rights.
There's no denying that Haggis' fundamental concept for Third Person is fascinating. It's layered with rich ideas - the genesis of inspiration, the power of creation, the themes of loss, lies and love, and what it means to really trust someone - and its narrative twist even accounts for some of the cardboard-stiff dialogue that emerges from the mouths of Haggis' characters. Speaking of which, the twist, which an astute viewer should be able to figure out at some point during the film, actually becomes more audacious in the final few moments - when secrets unravel, and it becomes clear just what kind of person Michael really is.
But what's so very frustrating about Third Person is that it never really lives up to its potential. Sure, its premise and characters can be picked over for ages: what is real, and what's imaginary? Did this character actually say that? What is the significance of that character? - and so on. But would anyone who has sat through the entire film really want to? For the most part, Third Person unspools like a tedious melodrama, with Haggis' generally quite accomplished cast (surprising MVP: Kunis) speaking in odd, weighty language that would not feel out of place in a soap opera. The characters all struggle to feel real, with Anna in particular flitting between emotional extremes in a most wearying manner. That might be Haggis' point - but it's hammered home in so joyless a fashion that it's hard to care too much, after a while.
Ultimately, Haggis' high concept proves to be the film's bright spot - and also its undoing. He has to juggle so furiously to keep all his balls in the air that he perhaps fails to realise that his three stories only become genuinely interesting in retrospect - which is a criminal waste of his audiences' interest and affections. He also doesn't really go as far with his concept as he could have done, although that might - arguably - be because he wants to allow his viewers the chance to finish the story for themselves. Whatever the case may be, Third Person languishes when it should race, and loses itself in the intriguing knots of its own premise.
- shawneofthedead
- Jul 22, 2014
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