Director: Paul Haggis
Starring: Liam Neeson, Mila Kunis, Adrien Brody, Olivia Wilde, James Franco and Kim Basinger
Certificate: 15
Running Time: 137 Minutes
Extras: Commentary with Paul Haggis, Jo Francis, Moran Atias, Laurence Bennett and Michael Nozik, “The Making of Third Person” and a Q&A with Writer/Director Paul Haggis
Originally released in the US last year, THIRD PERSON finally arrives on DVD in the UK to the unsuspecting public and I must admit, I never heard of this until now but with Liam Neeson is in it – what’s not to like? There’s also Olivia Wilde, Mila Kunis and Adrien Brody so what could possibly go wrong? The film tries to tell three stories about love, passion and betrayal consecutively. They’re set in New York, Paris and Rome, you could say these places are usually associated with romance but this is not the case in Paul Haggis’ film.
THIRD PERSON is a mystery that tells the story through three couples, who appear completely unrelated, but actually have commonalities. The first two are prize-winning author Michael (Neeson) and his love interest Anna (Wilde), an ambitious journalist. Michael is having a “secret” affair with Anna but this is common knowledge to his ex-wife and work colleagues. In Rome, we are introduced to shady American Businessman (Brody) who meets a mysterious woman played by Moran Atias. This lady, supposedly, needs money to save her 8-year-old daughter from being made to work the streets. Last but not least, Julia (Kunis) is in a custody battle with her ex-husband Rick (James Franco) in New York to gain her son back.
As much as I like the idea of THIRD PERSON, the film generally falls flat and manages to be quite dull. Not even a disturbing half-naked image of Liam Neeson, or Hawaiian-shirt-wearing Adrien Brody and hold your interest. No wonder the DVD cover was grey – the characters are all miserable! The truth is that 2 hours is too long and could have easily cut 30 minutes of Brody and Neeson’s characters floundering about. There is a scene with Julia (Kunis) and Rick (Franco) discussing their son and when Kunis reveals the truth, it all feels a bit underwhelming which isn’t helped by Franco sleep-walking through all his scenes.
It isn’t all bad, the editing was pretty interesting that linked the three stories together, as if they were all staying in the same hotel. Even if Liam Neeson was unconvincing as a prize winning author, Olivia Wilde is charming and amusing as his mistress. The running naked around the hotel stands out as the most interesting.
Overall, instead of making a social statement like Haggis’ film CRASH, that explored racial tensions and police corruption in Los Angeles, THIRD PERSON only explores relationships that are coincidental which all have that third person (get it?), whether it be another woman or baby, that tend to complicate matters. Yeah…
[usr=2] THIRD PERSON is out on DVD and Blu-Ray now.
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