Third Person –  Movie Review by Frank L.

Director: Paul Haggis
Writer: Paul Haggis (screenplay)
Stars: Liam Neeson, Mila Kunis, Adrien Brody

Third Person is bookended by title and credits appearing sequentially on a patchwork of letters upon which appear words/names written in a typeface which randomly throws a single letter on its side or back to front. It does not make the information displayed easier to read, it irritates but it does show a substantial amount of time (and presumably money) was spent creating an effect of not much value. Third Person contains three stories of love and betrayal which take place in Paris, Rome and New York and have certain similarities but why it is necessary to have the three in the one film is not easy to understand other than it gives the cameraman an opportunity to make frames against some atmospheric backdrops in these three beautiful cities; once again it gives an opportunity to spend extra money for no obvious reason.

The action moves from city to city, from story to story with never ending rapidity. The viewer is never given the opportunity to consider one story for more than a couple of minutes before being whisked away into one of the two other stories. Plot and character development inevitably suffers in this helter skelter of facts and images. What is so frustrating is that the actors Liam Neeson, Mila Kunis and Adrien Brody play their roles impressively but the cutting and slicing of the three stories in the cutting room into one movie diminishes even their work and expertise.

At the end as the credits roll with one letter in each word misplaced in some unfathomable alignment, the question arises for what did the writer/director choose to play that little joke on his audience and then more fundamentally why did he make the three stories into one movie and cut and slice the entire into a confetti of images.