Years after “Crash” won Best Picture at the Academy Awards, writer/director Paul Haggis returns to his multiple-storyline structure with “Third Person,” a convoluted and slightly soap-operatic story about love.
Michael (Liam Neeson) is a Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist, holing himself up in Paris to write his latest manuscript about love. But Michael has the tendency to write his own life into his story—his journal is written in the third person to encourage inspiration—and the manuscript becomes dangerously personal, split into three different stories around the world that make up the film.
The first story is linked directly to Michael, as his lover, Anna (Olivia Wilde), flies over to see him on the construct that she wants him to read a story she’s been writing. Quickly, their secret affair is revealed to be based mostly on verbal (but occasionally physical) S&M, which makes more and more sense as we learn about Anna.
Next, we meet an altogether unlikeable character. Adrien Brody plays a mean-spirited crook who steals designs for his knockoff clothing company. He takes a business trip to Italy… though he never seems to meet with anyone about his business while there. He does, however, meet a young gypsy woman (Moran Atias), who enlists him to help pay ransom to get her 8-year-old daughter back from human traffickers.
The final story follows Julia (Mila Kunis) struggling to keep her head above water in New York as she fights a custody battle with her ex-husband (James Franco) after an incident that led to her indictment for putting her son in danger. A large dose of unlucky circumstances, combined with Julia’s inability to keep a job for more than a week or so, makes it even more difficult to win her son back.
These three stories begin to cross paths as the film progresses, in some ways unbelievably. In fact, a lot of the plot points in the story seem far-fetched, which detaches the audience from its characters, in turn causing some of the more dramatic moments to fall a little flat. And this, perhaps, can be written off with the idea that it’s a story within a story. Michael seems to want to write his problems away, and so these characters are more a form of writer’s therapy, ideas rather than people, helping Michael through his emotional turmoil. The same cannot be said for the film’s audience.
Out of this ensemble cast of celebrities, Kunis and Wilde give us the best performances. Both actresses artfully display an array of emotions that enable the audience to connect with their characters, despite some of the wonky plot points.
Ultimately, Michael gave each story a happy ending because he wanted a happy ending, and I suspect we can see the parallels to Haggis’ career. After a series of unmemorable projects, we see this writer/director in Michael’s character—but it remains to be seen whether he will get his happy ending.
We’ll leave that judgment up to you. “Third Person” will be playing at the Midtown Cinema. Come check it out!
Sammi Leigh Meliville is a staff member and film reviewer at the Midtown Cinema.
Midtown Cinema July Events
2nd Saturday Morning Cartoons
7/12 9:30-11:30 am, Classic Looney Tunes
2nd Sunday Foreign Series
7/13 4 pm, Alfred Hitchcock’s “The Lady Vanishes”
MLB All-Star Game
7/15 8 pm, the big game on the big screen, free.
LGBT Film Festival
7/12: 7 pm, “Milk”
7/13: 7 pm “Call Me Malcolm;” 7:15 pm “Love Free or Die;” 7:30 pm “Out in the Dark”
7/14: 6:30 pm “Call Me Malcolm;” 7 pm “Love Free or Die;” 7:30 pm “Out in the Dark”
7/15: 4:30 pm “Call Me Malcolm;” 5 pm “Love Free or Die;” 5:30 pm “The Wise Kids;” 7 pm “The New Black;” 7:30 pm “Out in the Dark”
3rd in The Burg $3 Movie
7/18 about 9:30 pm, “Plan 9 from Outer Space,” with comedy improv stylists Down in Front! BYOB
3rd Sunday, Down in Front!
7/20 7pm, Movie+Improv, “The Screaming Skull,” BYOB
“A Small Family Business”
7/20 4 pm & 7/21 7pm
Riotous comedy filmed live at the National Theatre in London; $20/$15 members
Moviate Night at MC
7/27 7pm, film TBA
“Iron Jawed Angels”
7/29 7pm, Harrisburg Area NOW presents the 2004 drama
