Review of Third Person (2014) by Sol C — 28 Jun 2014

Paul Haggis strikes out with his new film. He goes back to the same territory of doing a drama with an ensemble with multiple stories going on and they ended up being connected. He did that successfully in Crash. However, here he doesn't do it right. While Crash dealt with racism, this film deals with relationships and trust issues. This film reminded me a lot of the Bradley Cooper film, The Words (that film also had Olivia Wilde in it). The big twist revelation at the end of the movie didn't surprise me at all. I kind of got the feeling very early in the movie that the film was headed for that revelation of how all 3 stories are connected.

The strongest of the 3 stories is the Liam Neeson story. His character is the focus and epicenter of this film. Adrien Brody's story was a bit fascinating but it wasn't connected really well at the end of the film. I found the Mila Kunis story a bit weak and got the shortest screen time of all the 3 stories in the film.

All the performances are very good. I thought Haggis did a great job casting all his actors. It is great seeing Neeson in a film that is not an action film. Olivia Wilde is really good her. Mila Kunis does a good job but she needed more screen time. The confrontation scene she has with James Franco is very good. I am getting used to seeing Mila and James in movies (example: Oz, Date Night). Adrien Brody is also good in the film. Kim Basinger, Maria Bello, and Franco also provide some solid supporting work.

Overall, if you check it out, then see it for the performances. For a better ensemble multiple stories dealing with relationships that connect well at the end of the film, then check out Playing By Heart, with Angelina Jolie, Dennis Quaid, and Sean Connery.