Third Person **
Paul Haggis (of Crash fame) has gone for the ‘romance’ route this time in exploring relationship highs and lows. That’s not to say he’s gone all rom-com slushy, rather his interwoven tale, Third Person, starts out to be three separate troubled affairs that eventually connect by the end credits.
The story plays out in New York, Paris and Rome. Michael (Liam Neeson) is a Pulitzer Prize-winning fiction author desperately trying to recapture his talent in a Parisian hotel room by completely his latest book, only to be interrupted by a visit from his mistress, Anna (Olivia Wilde), while escaping the fallout of a tragic event back home.
Meanwhile, Scott (Adrien Brody) on business Rome comes across a beautiful gypsy woman Monika (Israeli stunner Moran Atias) at a bar who has no money to pay off traffickers who have her little daughter. In New York, Julia (Mila Kunis), an ‘jobbing’ actress is trying to make ends meet in dead-end jobs while yearning to get custody of her young son who is living with his father Rick (James Franco) after an incident of abuse.
Third Person is a credible tale of grief and hardship, but it doesn’t endear us to any of the characters along their journeys. They all appear selfish, almost narcissistic in nature that empathising with any of them is a stretch – unless you are a parent, then it lazily taps into that engrained feeling of forlorn at being absent from your child.
Actually, it’s another Neeson meal ticket with a juicy ‘leading’ part for the action old-timer: He gets to intertwine with a younger woman. Indeed, Third Person feels like a middle-aged man’s wet dream with the ideas of escapism to luxurious European surroundings while having an exciting (if unhinged) young woman obsessing after you. Neeson and the others all give commendable performances, though nothing that stands out. In not really connecting with any of the characters embroiled in their lot, the film drifts from one scenario to another, all watchable, before you get the clever ‘twist’.
Indeed there is a moment in the film that ‘doesn’t feel quite right’, where a prop is out of place and starts you thinking what the heck is going on? In this respect, Haggis is a master of tying up loose plotlines into a conclusion that makes you wonder at his skill. The rest of the time getting there feels altogether very samey as other such films. It’s as though you are party to what’s going on, thrown into each couple’s situation but without all the details needed to truly become absorbed. This makes the status quo less enriching.
Third Person is another lesson in Haggis non-linear storytelling, something you can’t fault the writer-director on. It’s just a shame that the characters feel too detached to qualify for our sympathy. This is where the film fails down, as the twist is clever – though the more astute out there might twig in advance from the film’s tagline, “Life can change at the turn of a page”. Perhaps that’s too much of a clue and gives the game away before you embark on watching? In fact, the trailer summarises most of the couples’ issues anyway.
2/5 stars
By @FilmGazer
