Review of 3 Women (1977) by Kyle R — 08 Mar 2008

I may be wrong, but I always imagine "3 Women" turning off a portion of Altman aficionados, while at the same time enchanting some regular detractors of his work. A complete departure from his typical freewheeling, ensemble style of filmmaking, it has a haunting, dreamlike quality unlike anything else I've seen.

It's a tough one to describe, but the titular women are: a socially invisible chatterbox (Shelley Duvall), her adoring, childlike protege (Sissy Spacek), and a near mute artist (Janice Rule), pregnant by Duvall and Spacek's lecherous, philandering landlord.

Over the course of the film, a pair of cataclysmic events cause the women to twice exchange identities. Without giving too much away, the first such transfer is straightforward enough, prompted by temporary amnesia, but the second is more abstract and disturbing, motivated by guilt and loss.

If all this sounds a little heavy-going, "3 Women" is often very funny, at the expense of Duvall's would-be domestic goddess and Spacek's wide-eyed innocent. Shelley Duvall is outstanding and Sissy Spacek is equally wonderful, but the film owes much of its haunting atmosphere to Janice Rule; the fact that she says very little is somehow more mysterious than if she were to say nothing at all.