Third Person (2013 Toronto Film Festival) R-16





(Sorry, but I cannot write about this film without some spoilers)

We were only four people in the cinema and all of us knew each other. Why? Because I watched it with my mom, my dad and my younger brother.

It was always pretty awkward watching a restricted film with my parents in a public theater, so I was feeling a bit iffy, but I don't think I would have it any other way.  After all, we were all adults.  My dad's in his late 70's, my mom's in her mid 70s, plus my brother and I were both in our 40's so I guess it was perfectly alright.

The movie had a good way of interlocking the stories, but there were many, many goofs.   Like how would someone in New York bump into someone in Paris? This was not a story about portals or sliding doors.  It's a story about Michael(Neeson), a very successful writer who is estranged with his wife Elaine(Bassinger) with a very young up and coming beautiful and sexy journalist called Anna(Wilde) as his mistress.

At first I told myself, Ang sarap ihagis ni Paul Haggis(Fractured translation:Throwing Paul Haggis off a cliff would be a good feeling.), but when I analyzed the movie, it really wasn't as bad as it seemed.  I can't say I highly recommend it, but it is pretty interesting.  Some of the individual stories are not unique, but the way they were weaved together was good.

This is a movie where goofs are not mistakes per se, but parts of Michael's DRAFTS.  As a writer he was able to change certain scenes, like when he decided to make the room number 203 instead of 303. He based certain aspects of the characters on his own life and the people involved with him.

The actors were good, most especially Mila Kunis, Liam Neeson and Olivia Wilde. Vinicio Marchioni playing Carlo, a bad boy, was effective, but Adrien Brody's character(Sean aka Scott) was so unreal.  Would one give up a lot for someone he or she just met?  He was a cautious person, but...

I felt for Mila Kunis' role, Julie and her child Jesse(Crouch).  At the same time, I also understood Rick(Franco) and his lover, Sam(Chabanol)

Kim Bassinger seems to be more beautiful than ever.  Her short role as Elaine was very effective.  Some parts of her real life character(her concerns and attributes) was personified by Theresa(Bello).

All the three interlocking stories were conceived all because of someone saying this to Michael sometime in the past: "Watch me!"  He was not able to watch that person because of a phone call making his world crumble.  Who was at the other end of the line?

Watch it to find out. 

I gave a lot of spoilers already. :-)








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