Review of 3 Needles (2005) by Danielle S — 30 Apr 2008

One movie, three stories, one epidemic; AIDS.

The film begins in Africa where young boys are undergoing ritual which includes a circumcision, learning to fight, and to be come a man. From Africa we go to rural China where Jin Ping (Lucy Liu) runs an undergroung blood bank, paying the people $5.00 american per liter of blood they donate, and since most of the people are poor they are more then willin to donate. While taken the blood, Jin who is HIV positve along with her husband contaminates the people. Moving to Canada we meet Denys (Shawn Ashmore), a porn star who is HIV positive but steals blood from his ill father for his frequent 'tests' required by the porn director to hide his positive status in order to continue making porn movies to support his family. But after his father dies the director of the movies finds out he is postive and fires him. His mother (Stockard Channing) fearing for her and her sons life, learns that AIDS patients' are ability to cash in thier life insurance early, so she infects herself so that she can take advantage of the early insurance cash to provide a life of comfort in the small time they both now have for herself and her son. Then we return to South Africa where three nuns - Sister Clara (Chloë Sevigny), Sister Hilde Francis (Olympia Dukakis) and Sister Mary John (Sandra Oh) - set up a clinic to treat the villagers, finding only that acts of tremendous self-sacrifice can stave off the spread of the gore of AIDS. The boys from the beginning of the film who are now men are returning to life that it is filled whith pain.This film shows excellent cinematography throughout. It shows a lot of beautiful scenery, such as breathtaking waterfalls, beautiful sunsets, new moons. It examines moral dilemmas and the evil side of humanity. Worth watching.