| Taglines Yes, it is hard to juggle the pain of characters with the exhilaration of their creation, though that sensibility thrives in Renoir, Buñuel, Ophüls, Sturges, and even Bergman at times. There’s 20-something Anna, an aspiring writer who’s having an affair with Michael. Third Person is a film that keeps viewers thinking long after the credits have rolled, but in this case, that’s not necessarily a good thing. Third Person … The other actors in the film do not match Neeson and Wilde. Meanwhile Rick has become a successful artist and he now lives with a fresh lover, Sam (Loan Chabanol). 1984 uses a third-person limited, or close third-person, point of view to show the reader both the internal and external experience of living under a totalitarian government. Olivia Wilde as Anna and Liam Neeson as Michael in "Third Person" (Maria Marin) In Rome, a shifty businessman (Adrien Brody) tries to help a woman (Moran Atias) whose daughter is … There was innate humor in their point of view. There is this one line of dialogue that has haunted me: “Women have the gift of being able to deny any reality.” I don’t know if that is necessarily the case. With Liam Neeson, Mila Kunis, Adrien Brody, Olivia Wilde. Directed by Paul Haggis. Maybe you've heard someone say, 'Well, you've got your own point of view.' Mila Kunis’ character Julia has “mental problems” that are never deeply explored. In an expensive hotel in Paris, a successful novelist, Michael (Liam Neeson), is trying to work on a new book. Then he made In the Valley of Elah, a meticulously crafted military mystery that never escaped the gloom of Tommy Lee Jones as the father trying to explain the death of his son. Third Person follows a group of seemingly random characters. Not that Paul Haggis has a reputation for play. So does this rare and beguiling film deserve such titular oblivion? In the novel, we have access to Winston Smith’s thoughts and memories, but not those of other characters. Its deepest feelings are for narrative puzzle and its solutions, so it is some way from the blunt emotional impact usually associated with movie success. Drama, Romance. Sophia: I love the scene where Sam meets Julia in the bathroom, and how Julia is so willing to put her trust in her potentially biggest enemy. At the same time, Scott (Adrien Brody), a shady American businessman, is in Italy to steal designs from fashion houses. Haggis, by contrast, seemed tight and troubled. Not long ago he left his wife, Elaine (Kim Basinger), and he is now in an affair with the younger Anna (Olivia Wilde), who herself wants to be a writer. In Japanese media, this is a standard tic of very young children. It was a murder story and a prison-escape picture that turned its own elements inside out. At least they offer some hint that a game is being played. She is played with bare-faced panache by Olivia Wilde (bare in other ways, too)—I will only hint that Anna has another aspect to her life, so nasty that, if I were to spell it out, could smack of raw but unexplored melodrama. Photo by Maria Marin, Courtesy of Sony Pictures Classics. The Scott-Monika story is harder to believe and Julia, Rick, and Sam seem anemic. Paul: Julia just doesn’t recognize Sam, and asks Sam to be her friend. It looks like we don't have a Synopsis for this title yet. There's some fighting, and guns are produced but never fired. Parents need to know that Third Person is multiple-storyline drama from Paul Haggis, who also made the Oscar-winning Crash. Three interlocking love stories involving three couples in three cities: Rome, Paris, and New York. In part that is because the Michael-Anna relationship is better written and played with greater vivacity. It’s just heart-breaking. The third situation is in New York. Because that’s all she needs, is a friend. Posted on May 13, 2015 May 13, 2015 by Alexander Durie. Julia (Mila Kunis) is fighting a custody battle with her ex-husband, Rick (James Franco), over their young son. I did think of other titles—As He Sat Dreaming; Watch Me; The Author Theory—but they may be fanciful, literary, and in danger of giving the game away. By Stephen Holden. Now Third Person seems like a clear statement of intent. What that thing is, I have no idea. Julia (Mila Kunis) can’t get her life together, much to the vexation of her attorney, Theresa (Maria Bello). Against the backdrop of three modern metropolises--Paris, Rome, and New York--unfolds a sad triptych of deception, mistrust, and despair. It reveals an intellect in Haggis and an interest in narrative form for its own sake that is surprising and rewarding. There is even a moment where Michael is seen quickly typing up anguished words from someone once dear to him to use as publishable dialogue. Parents Guide. In bustling New York City, the former soap-opera actress and now a hotel maid, Julia Weiss, is bound to miss probably the most important meeting in her life with her lawyer, for a lost case of child custody. On the other hand, if you are not reading, how are you going to have any sniff of beans to be had? Yet Flags does have an ear for the blithe fraud in an iconic incident from history, and Haggis’s last picture before this, The Next Three Days, was a step toward artful contrivance. Maybe "Third Person" could have worked better if the men weren’t such self-absorbed control freaks and the women weren’t such willing victims. What emerges gradually—by which I mean slowly and mysteriously—is the way these stories from Rome and New York are material that Michael is working on for his new book, and they are all versions of his unhappy and confused life. Plot Keywords That seemed very promising in description: a series of Los Angeles stories, kept separate but with binding themes involving accident, race, and responsibility. LOS ANGELES, June 19 (UPI) --Mila Kunis stars as a woman named Julia, a mother desperately trying to prove she did not kill her son in the film Third Person.In the clip, Julia … It’s obviously on the artier side of things, and it appears Haggis wants to convey something very personal about love. 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. Yet Nabokov is a master of this playfulness when the process of creation becomes an inescapable subject of the work. 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. Another Best Picture Oscar came to Haggis for Crash, which he wrote and directed. but, you do get to see , who that third person they cheated with and how things worked out in there relationships not sure you will be happy with the ending! Third Person has some problems, none as serious as whether it can hold an audience. 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. But Crash felt tidy and disapproving next to the soaring looseness of Magnolia. | He is one of our most accomplished and successful scenarists. Much like Haggis’ racism-in-L.A. Best Picture-winner Crash , Third Person presents itself as an everything-is-connected movie in the Short Cuts or Amores Perros vein, with different stories taking place in different places, all linked by a thin connective thread. Right away, Phil and Nico can count out any chance of using a key fob, as the only person we know that has one is Julia. But the picture turned out to be precious and artificial. Third Person is partly about an author writing himself into his own story, so it’s nearly impossible to not peer at the movie and try to spot where Haggis is hiding. 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. Mila Kunis Talks THIRD PERSON, Drawing on Her Own Mistakes in Life, Playing a Mom, Collaborating with James Franco, and Working with Director Paul Haggis When the money she has saved to pay her daughter's smuggler is stolen, Scott feels compelled to help. Strong females regularly face and even overcome the harshest of truths all the time. He is now with his father Rick (James Franco), a pretentious abstract artist and his girlfriend played by French supermodel Loan Chabanol (there are no homely people in this movie). (It's highly unlikely that this movie will elicit the same reaction; it's a mess.) 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. The strategy of seeing the stories as attempts at elegance made by a writer who is himself as much the victim of their pain and difficulty as his characters is ripe for comedy, but Haggis doesn’t do comedy. See it once; see it twice. That would suggest it is not very American, and I fear the agile transition from gravity to amusement sits uneasily in the American imagination. “Third Person” involves three sets of couples. The premature wariness—that this is an international version of Crash—does set in, and Haggis is given to tongue-and-groove fits that can become as airless as chess. Third Person springs from these roots, though I must be careful in outlining its story, just as you may prefer to go no farther if you plan to see this picture. Haggis’ new movie is “Third Person,” opening Friday. Julia (Mila Kunis) is fighting a custody battle with her ex-husband, Rick (James Franco), over their young son. But what The film tells three inter-connected love stories that take place in Paris, New York and Rome/Taranto In that sense, Third Person feels like an overly lengthy shaggy-dog joke with a worthwhile build-up and a questionable payoff. Ferris Bueller’s Day Off “Life moves pretty fast. Her lawyer (Maria Bello) is fighting a losing battle as Julia does everything wrong in her efforts to win back custody from her ex-husband, Rick (James Franco). 'Everyone's got their own story to tell.' His two other films for Clint Eastwood—Flags of Our Fathers and Letters from Iwo Jima—are grim war pictures. In the end, at the Eternal City of Rome, the shady entrepreneur, Scott Lowry, inadvertently finds himself entangled in a rescue mission, going against his innate selfishness. Directed by Paul Haggis. R. 2h 17m. Is there no way of warning that it is unlike anything you have seen? There’s 50-something Michael, a married writer who’s rented out a hotel room in London to finish his latest novel. Throughout Third Person, the female characters are weak and seem to exist only to flesh out the roles of the men that they are connected to. Be the first to contribute! Michael (Liam Neeson) is a Pulitzer Prize-winning fiction author who has holed himself up in a hotel suite in Paris to finish his latest book. Can her story become his life? Or, maybe you've heard it another way. So all the situations here are fraught love stories that involve damage or a threat to a young child. Except in this movie perhaps, … He could hardly mount the edifice of Third Person without that sense of humor. But he is an honest actor and a wry physical presence, and these roles match the public sympathy for him since the abrupt loss of his wife, Natasha Richardson. She has a lawyer, Theresa (Maria Bello), who is attempting to present her untidy, unpunctual client’s case in court. What else could they be? A Third-Person Person is a character who always refers to themself in the third person. Just click the "Edit page" button at the bottom of the page or learn more in the Synopsis submission guide. He made a very effective movie out of the boxing stories of F. X. Toole to produce Million Dollar Baby. Rick phones Julia to let her know that she can see their son, just as she moves out of her apartment so she never heard the message. Remember that title if you see the film. His picture leaves the impression that it is not just a burden to be a writer, it is also morally reprehensible—because the writer coolly, or coldly, sucks on life to steal the elements of his fictions. You can believe he is a real writer torn over a vibrant trophy mistress who is also a would-be writer he is tempted to demolish. Scott’s story is linked with Julia, because Scott’s wife was revealed to be Terri, Julia’s attorney. Rick's current girlfriend Sam (Loan Chabanol) is a compassionate onlooker. 17. Scott is drawn to this woman and he begins to give her his money and his help to buy the daughter back. Imagine three cards on a table: Paris, Rome, and New York. You've probably heard this saying, or some variation of it, sometime in your life. A part of me hopes that you are no longer reading, for I am close to spilling the beans. Anderson and Altman had been exhilarated by coincidence and its discovery. The third situation is in New York. But if Haggis remains convinced that artists are simply chronic betrayers of the real people in their lives, then his films are likely to continue to come out solemn and ponderous. But then a faint melody called coincidence appears. When it rained frogs in Magnolia, Anderson’s reaction was amazed and fit to laugh. The film finds this horrible, as you can tell from its tone, and no one can deny the cheating and exploitation in Michael’s eavesdropping on his own life. It felt so knowing about screenwriting that it came close to satire or deconstruction. In this case, your own point of view is your own way of looking at the world that is different than everyone else's. 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. 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. In New York, self-destructive, vulnerable Julia (Mila Kunis) takes a job as a maid in a hotel after her wealthy artist husband (James Franco) charges her with … It won Best Picture, while striking Andrew Sarris as one of the more depressing films he had ever seen. As a result, girls who are childish or cutesy may be seen referring to themselves in this manner by their own name and their loved ones' names rather than using pronouns like (w)atashi . Haggis would have made it feel like a Biblical curse. I won’t say the three stories are in balance or given the best chance to work as a unity. It is a very special film in which the thrill of discovery is vital and exquisite. 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. As the acclaimed Pulitzer-winning novelist, Michael Leary, struggles to overcome his persistent writer's block in his quiet Parisian hotel room, his young showbiz columnist lover, Anna Barr, is anxious to evolve into a book author herself. Third Person movie trailer, release date, plot, photos and cast starring Liam Neeson, Olivia Wilde and Mila Kunis. Julia is desperately trying to prove her stability by taking a job as a hotel maid but keeps aggravating her lawyer Theresa (Mario Bello) by missing family court dates. Taste of Cinema - Movie Reviews and Classic Movie Lists > Lists > Film Lists > 25 Great Movies With The Most Effective Uses Of Voice-Over Narration 25 Great Movies With The Most Effective Uses Of Voice-Over Narration . But it is also human, devious, and comic. She’s flown to London so Michael can read her latest short story (which she hopes to get published), with ‘fooling around’ also on the … It seems that Scott’s deserted wife is Theresa. Writers such as Michael can be rascals, but their playfulness is energizing. Third Person is a tentative, huddled title, so elusive I had to confirm it before I began to write. In one scene, a man forcibly removes a woman from his apartment by dragging her, kicking and screaming, across the floor. One of the film’s most central characters, Anna (Olivia Wilde) is the classically cutthroat and bitchy sexual object who just needs a wonderful man to show her what love … But then, rather as in Crash, the film shifts attention from one story to another, and we go to Rome, where Scott (Adrien Brody) steals designs from fashion houses to sell to rivals, and seems detached from or dubious about any life of his own. And I am pretty sure that if I did know, I would not want to. The third story takes us to New York where Julia (Kunis) has been charged with attempting to kill her son and she is trying to get her life back in order. I know one other comparable film, Alain Resnais’s Providence, in which John Gielgud plays a novelist. 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). 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. She was a soap-opera actress once, but she has fallen on hard times and now works as a maid in a hotel. Paul Haggis ensemble drama tells three stories of love, passion, trust and betrayal. What could possibly link those stories together? Could a complete American have done the slippage from comedy to tragedy in that very American book Lolita? Never mind: in the last quarter of the film (it’s a full 137 minutes) a genuine fascination dawns so that you begin trying to think of a new title while wishing that Haggis might have risked a lighter mood. Liam Neeson seems to have been trudging through a number of mediocre pictures lately, usually about family stress on a middle-aged man. While watching the new Paul Haggis film, Third Person, I spent a lot of time trying to figure out what the hell it was supposed to be. In New York, Julia (Mila Kunis) is fighting for her rights as a parent after being accused of trying to kill her young son. Three interlocking love stories involving three couples in three cities: Rome, Paris, and New York. And we, the audience, finding out that Michael lost his son while lying about taking a business call as his son asks him to “watch me”, and drowns. That is only the beginning of a delicate pattern-making. Hating everything Italian, Scott wanders into the Café American" in search of something familiar to eat. There, he meets Monika (Moran Atias), a beautiful Roma woman, who is about to be reunited with her young daughter. June 19, 2014. Haggis has not seemed to be working in that tradition. You should see it. It was as if Haggis’s social pessimism was tied up in too neat a bow. Mila Kunis as Julia, Third Person. | Haggis is entranced by this duplicity and by the two-faced nature of literary creation. You could say that Crash aspired to the feeling you get in some Robert Altman and Paul Thomas Anderson films—Nashville or Magnolia—of the narrative diversity within a city. You’ll only understand it in the film’s final 10 minutes. One day he goes into a bar and sees Monika (Moran Atias), a fierce Roma woman who is attempting to retrieve her daughter from a cruel trader in kidnapped lives. 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