Film Review: ‘Third Person’ an Intriguing Yet Foreseeable Labyrinth

CHICAGO – Don’t you hate it when you figure out where a film is going long before it gets there? That could be a problem with “Third Person,” but writer/director Paul Haggis (“Crash”) also adds enough secrets to chew on and enough multiple pathways to explore. Enter at your own risk.

Rating: 3.5/5.0

This is an intertwining ensemble piece, much like the filmmaker’s previous 2005 Best Picture, “Crash,” and promises to be just as engaging as that film. Liam Neeson takes a break from action pictures to romance a younger woman in his story, as he goes from her writing mentor to lover. He struggles with a new novel in the background of all this, and the distance between his reality and his characters start to coincide. This is a treatise on love and all its dread and possibilities, and proves the assertion of Paul Haggis – in an interview with HollywoodChicago.com [21] – “The more I learn about love and relationships, the less I know.”

The story relates three inter-connected love stories that take place in Paris, New York City and Rome. Michael (Liam Neeson) is a writer in Paris, and he is having an affair with one of his protégés, Anna (Olivia Wilde), and is separated from his wife Elaine (Kim Basinger). Concurrently, two other stories are taking place in other cities, but seem interconnected.

In New York City, an ex-soap opera actress Julia (Mila Kunis) is trying to clear her name after being accused of almost killing her son, now in the custody of his father Rick (James Franco). In Rome, an American businessman named Sean (Adrien Brody) is inadvertently is smitten by a fiery Italian woman named Monica (Moran Atlas), and gets involved in something he didn’t expect. All three scenarios clash as the passion and stakes rise.

Continue reading for Patrick McDonald’s full review of “Third Person” [22]

I Love Paris? Anna (Olivia Wilde) and Michael (Liam Neeson) in ‘Third Person’
Photo credit: Sony Pictures Classics

Continue reading for Patrick McDonald’s full review of “Third Person” [22]