3 Women

Name: 3 Women
Genre: Drama
Released: June 28, 2002
Rating: 82
Cast: Shelley Duvall, Sissy Spacek

2002

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Universal acclaim based on 5 Critic Reviews

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USER SCORE

Universal acclaim based on 30 Ratings

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8.2

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8.2	User Score Universal acclaim based on 30 Ratings

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Movie Details & Credits

Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation | Release Date: June 28, 2002 | PG

Starring: Shelley Duvall, Sissy Spacek

Summary: This re-release of Robert Altman's 1977 drama stars Spacek as a shy, quiet girl named Pinky who starts working in a nursing home and strikes up a friendship with the talkative Millie (Duvall).

Director: Robert Altman

Genre(s): Drama

Rating: PG

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Critic Reviews

100

David Sterritt

Written and directed by a brilliant screen artist at the peak of his powers, it's an utterly original comedy-drama. Read full review

100

Eric Henderson

3 Women is a daring piece of cinema that glides along the edge of weirdness and somehow manages not to fall off. Read full review

Staff (Not Credited)

Absorbing moody and often compelling story. Read full review

TV Guide Magazine Staff (Not credited)

A film such as this, which relies on mood, atmosphere, and ideas, rather than plot, depends on its acting to be effective, and the entire cast is extraordinary, with Shelley Duvall and Sissy Spacek both giving their finest performance ever. Read full review

Michael Atkinson

Today, the movie doesn't portend Altman's subsequent tailspin into irrelevance as much as it suggests a restlessness with the comic realism he had mastered. Read full review

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User Reviews

oakridge

May 2, 2013

A dreamlike film with no pat ending. This is Robert Altman's best film and a showcase for both Sissy Spacek and Shelley Duvall, who are amazing in this hypnotic example of 70'S cinema at its best.

0 of 0 users found this helpful00

barnet42

Oct 3, 2012

I like this movie because sissy spacek is in it she is a very good actress !!! Why A Carrie Remake, in God's name?!!!! It's a perfect film! Brian de Palma filmed it perfectly, Sissy Spacek and Piper Laurie are absolutely perfect ,they both got Oscar nominations out of it, for God sake!

1 of 1 users found this helpful10

RobertOBrien

Feb 12, 2016

It's a movie that always seems to be unraveling before me, regardless of how many times I have watched it. Very few films have the ability to always feel like it's your first time watching it. I can't quite explain, it's just hypnotic and I found myself thoroughly immersed in it's constantIt's a movie that always seems to be unraveling before me, regardless of how many times I have watched it. Very few films have the ability to always feel like it's your first time watching it. I can't quite explain, it's just hypnotic and I found myself thoroughly immersed in it's constant feeling that something is just slightly off.

Easily has become one of my favorites.… Expand

0 of 0 users found this helpful00

ArmondA.

Aug 31, 2005

Everyone who saw this film and enjoyed it seems to have seen his own personal piece of cinema. While the individual elements are highly distinctive, enabling its enthusiasts to know that they are indeed discussing the same movie, I believe that NOBODY knows what "it" is about, including the Everyone who saw this film and enjoyed it seems to have seen his own personal piece of cinema. While the individual elements are highly distinctive, enabling its enthusiasts to know that they are indeed discussing the same movie, I believe that NOBODY knows what "it" is about, including the people who made it. Yet after 30 years the film remains a very good work of art that says what it says in exactly the way that it says it. We accept that paintings, poems, and piano concertos inform and move us in ways that do not translate into prose essays. But if you must have proof that this is more than an exercise in film-school experimentalism, the performances of the Three Women who star are just superb, giving us precisely drawn people who take up permanent residence in your own life history.… Expand

1 of 1 users found this helpful

Spangle

Mar 20, 2017

Starting off as a psychological drama with themes of obsession, 3 Women hooks towards psychological horror by the end of its second act before turning into a thoroughly confusing film in its third act. Considering themes of motherhood and identity, 3 Women is a deeply philosophical film thatStarting off as a psychological drama with themes of obsession, 3 Women hooks towards psychological horror by the end of its second act before turning into a thoroughly confusing film in its third act. Considering themes of motherhood and identity, 3 Women is a deeply philosophical film that borders on incomprehensible plot-wise. Director Robert Altman may be known for plotless films, but this work is more akin to one by Jean-Luc Godard with the general resentment it has for those who try to follow a plot. Whenever it seems as though the film is able to settle in and begin being a truly cohesive work, it takes a dramatic turn and becomes a wholly different experience. In many ways, this film about three women is three films trapped inside of one body, which makes some odd thematic sense.

Conceived in a dream by Altman, 3 Women's psychedelic imagery is hardly its only indicator that it was once a dream. Its general elusiveness and the fashion in which its images escape the mind with equal parts subtle tranquility and frustration, 3 Women is a film that defies definition. Introducing us to Millie (Shelley Duvall) and Pinkie (Sissy Spacek), the film begins with them both working at a rehab clinic for geriatric patients. Pinkie is new so Millie is tasked with showing her the ropes. Soon, they become roommates after Millie's roommate moves in with her boyfriend. Pinkie's odd obsession with Millie is immediate. When Millie misses one day of work, Pinkie asks every other nurse at the clinic about her and keeps repeating that she found her to be incredibly nice. Yet, it is clear nobody agrees. Millie has people she hangs around with, but no friends. She sleeps with men, but that is mostly just because she will, not because the men want to sleep with her specifically. In this opening third of the film, Millie shown to be disliked by most and gratingly annoying to the point that nobody listens to her. Simultaneously, she blames Pinkie for all of her flaws. When her old roommate and some guys cancel plans with Millie (which they had thought was "just drinks", while Millie thought it was a "dinner party"), she blames Pinkie for this. This section of the film sets the ground work for many themes to be developed later on in the film. Firstly, the concept of identity. Pinkie and Millie are both named Mildred, but Pinkie hates the name. At work, Pinkie accidentally punches Millie's time card. After staining one of her clothes, Pinkie just takes one of Millie's shirts. This manifests itself by the end of the film where it is shown that Pinkie had used Millie's social security number on her W-4 at work. The two of them have practically become the twin co-workers they have by this point. The two are linked and not just in their names. The two have reached the point where Millie speaks on Pinkie's behalf at work and where a man such as Edgar (Robert Fortier) wants to sleep with both of them. They are a package deal and two-of-a-kind, unable to be separated.

Yet, after Pinkie takes a nosedive off the balcony into the pool, the film shows identity in a different fashion. Not recognizing her parents (who are the weirdest people ever and about 105 years old, compared to Spacek who looks like she just hit 12), Pinkie goes on to want to be called Millie and embracing her name of Mildred. Earlier, Millie (original Millie) had similarly expressed issues with her parents by saying that she had a dream where her mother had brought her tomatoes, which she hates. Ironically, Pinkie also says she hates tomatoes. Regardless, the two flip after Pinkie's accident. Instead of Millie treating Pinkie poorly, the opposite is now true. Pinkie is even celebrated and beloved by the other members of the apartment complex. She is a real star in the place compared to Millie who is still ignored. Edgar, who first wanted to sleep with Millie, is now sleeping with Pinkie. Their worlds have flipped and the two are at complete odds with one another. Not having the best relationships with their mothers - a major theme that would be more realized in the third act - the two begin to show how identity changes rapidly. Millie is largely the same, but far more sheepish. She takes one stand at work, but bends over backwards for Pinkie despite the abuse. She acts like a mother rejected by her annoying bubblegum-popping teenager. Pinkie's u-turn in the aftermath of her concussion and amnesia begins to reflect the fractured nature of her mind and the film as a whole. Before transitioning into an out-of-left-field conclusion, the film shows Pinkie lying in bed with psychedelic imagery playing over her. Representing the dream-like nature of the whole film, it also hints at the way in which things blend and change at a shocking rate to the point that what once was is hardly incomprehensible and what is now is the only thing that makes sense.… Expand

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