3.5 stars. Rated R, for profanity, nudity and sensuality
By Derrick Bang • Originally published in The Davis Enterprise, 7.18.14
Writer/director Paul Haggis’ film
is too long, too self-indulgent and often too precious.
That said, it’s also intriguing,
mysterious, and oddly compelling. And, to a degree, there’s a reason for the
many contrivances. Whether the “ultimate answer” justifies the prolonged
journey, however, will be up to the taste — and tolerance — of the individual
viewer.
 |
| Monika (Moran Atias) angrily refuses to share a hotel room with Scott (Adrien Body), and accusing him of "the obvious" motivations; she chooses instead to make the best of a bench at the railway station. Of course, this just amplifies Scott's protective instincts, so he follows and winds up keeping her company for the entire night. |
Haggis is a seasoned writer,
having cut his teeth on various TV dramas before leaping to the big screen with
several high-profile assignments with Clint Eastwood: Flags of Our Fathers, Letters from Iwo Jima and most particularly Million Dollar Baby, the latter
two garnering Oscar nominations. Haggis also helped revive the James Bond
franchise by collaborating on the gritty scripts for Casino Royale and Quantum of Solace.
Most notably, though, Haggis is
known for taking home twin Academy Awards for 2004’s Crash, a victory that
remains controversial to this day. Some Best Picture Oscar winners are
universally embraced; others divide movie buffs into polarized camps. Crash belongs to the latter group, its interlinked storylines alternately praised as
insightful social commentary or ridiculed as puerile left-wing twaddle.
Third Person is an equally
personal film that employs a similar template of seemingly disconnected
narratives that slide in and around each other. The crossovers aren’t as direct
as those in, say, Babel, Love Actually or even Crash; sometimes it’s no
more than two people passing each other in a hotel hallway, Haggis’ camera
using that excuse to shift quietly from one point of view to the other.
Except that there is more going
on here, as we eventually discover.
Perhaps sensitive to the warring
camps he created with Crash, Haggis avoids even a whiff of political content
this time, focusing instead on interpersonal relationships and issues of trust.
All the characters here are in various stages of flirtation, love or rejection,
their behavior determined by anger, frustration and impatience.
And by hope. Hope for
understanding; hope that things will get better; hope that past transgressions
can be surmounted, catalogued and forgiven.
Julia (Mila Kunis) can’t get her
life together, much to the vexation of her attorney, Theresa (Maria Bello).
Forever between jobs and frequently down to pocket change, Julia nonetheless
hopes to regain visitation rights with the 6-year-old son living full-time with
his father Rick (James Franco), a famed New York artist, and his girlfriend Sam
(Loan Chabanol). We’ve no idea what Julia did, to be shunned so thoroughly by
her ex; her flakiness alone doesn’t seem sufficient cause for such total
banishment.
