Review of Third Person (2014) by Conrad T — 19 Aug 2015

"WOW! Paul Haggis, another dramatic ensemble piece, please do something different".

DVD Movie Review: Third Person.

Date Viewed: December 28 2014.

Written and Directed By Paul Haggis (Crash, In the Valley of Elah and The Next Three Days).

Starring: Liam Neeson, Mila Kunis, Adrien Brody, Olivia Wilde, James Franco, Maria Bello, Caroline Goodall, David Harewood, Moran Atias and Kim Basinger.

Writer and director Paul Haggis (Crash and In the Valley of Elah) has done it again. He has made another dramatic ensemble piece. His new film "Third Person" may have some good performances but his screenplay is full of baloney. Like his 2005 film "Crash" (which surprisingly won the Best Picture Oscar over "Brokeback Mountain"), "Third Person" has multiple storylines, each of them set in different city. This movie should have taken place in Boringville because the melodrama is overwrought and it's 2 hours and 17 minutes long.

The movie begins in Paris where we meet a writer named Michael (Liam Neeson). He recently left his wife (Kim Basinger) and he has an on/off relationship with a young woman named Anna (Olivia Wilde). She has a terrible secret which is why she's unable to commit a relationship with Michael. In New York, we meet a troubled young woman named Julia (Mila Kunis). She was recently charged with attempting to kill her son but she firmly denies the charges. Her son is now in the custody of his artist father, Rick (James Franco). Julia used to be a popular soap star but now she works as a maid for a New York hotel just to make ends meet and trying everything in her power to regain custody of her son.

In Rome, an American businessman named Scott (Adrien Brody) falls in love with an Albanian gypsy woman, Monika (Moran Atias). Monika's daughter, we learn, got kidnapped by a Russian mobster and is being held for ransom. Scott desperately wants to help Monika get her daughter back but she doesn't want his help or his money. Soon, Monika and Scott make love and come up with a plan to get her daughter back. As I mentioned before, this movie is very long, this sappy drama goes on forever.

I did like Liam Neeson and Mila Kunis as troubled people trapped in an endless cycle of depression but Paul Haggis failed to make a compelling movie. "Third Person" is just a third-rate version of Haggis' Oscar-winning 2005 film.