Rating: 
Summary: A Truly Great Film
Review: 3 WOMEN is a truly great film. Only NASHVILLE outranks it among Altman's creations, and the fact that it never appeared on VHS is a scandal of the age. This is one of the only movies which I saw one night and then went back again to see the very next night. The acting and camera work are superb and the story is not that difficult to follow if one pays attention and uses his/her imagination. Pinky's attempted suicide is one of the greatest scenes ever filmed by anyone at any time. A little more sexual intimacy between Millie and Pinky would have been appreciated but one can't have everything, and an inside joke is the fact that several of the actors who play attendants at the rest home were at the time appearing on MARY HARTMAN, MARY HARTMAN. From beginning to end this is a stupifying work of visual art and all movie lovers should grab it while they can. Thanks, Criterion! It's about time!
Rating: 
Summary: Stop projecting and SEE what a pretentious film this is.
Review: Altman may have been the most over-rated filmaker in the United States. What we see in this film is the work of a person with superb technical skills being applied by one with the vision of an ambitious film student. Disolves are disjointed and ambiguous---not "because they are meant to be" but because Mr. Altman has lost all sight of his narrative. This happens ALOT. No excuses, Mr. Altman. You are stillriding on your ill-deserved rep. For excellent film-making see ANYthing by Jaques Tati. Nuff said. And to all you out there, impressed by this film: what WAS going on in your life when you saw it, and were SOOO impressed?
Rating:
Summary: MILLIE & PINKY & WILLIE....
Review: As a Robert Altman fan, I'm fully aware that he's a hit or miss director...with equal amounts of hits and misses. Yet, when he hits---he's a genius. "3 Women" contains the genius with the uncanny casting of Shelley Duvall as Millie, a would be sophisticate with no sophistication and Sissy Spacek as Pinky, a strange blank slate of a girl from Texas. The third woman is Willie (Janice Rule), an equally strange (and strangely silent) pregnant middle-aged artist who paints obscenely macabre murals of half-reptile half-human creatures in empty swimming pools. The setting is a small desert town in Arizona where Millie works as a physical therapy aide and meets Pinky, a new aide, who winds up her roommate. Pinky is fascinated by a pair of twins who work at the rest home and begins to study Millie's life and mannerisms. After nearly drowning in a suicide attempt, she winds up in a coma. When she recovers from the coma, Millie is told she has temporary amnesia. But Pinky is no longer Pinky, she's evolving into Millie. Willie will also assume a different role in the film's eerie, pastorial conclusion. Whether you like this or not depends on your tolerance for the unusual and challenging. Certainly the film has it's humor, like Millie's desperate attempts at being a social butterfly and everyone's blatant ignoring of her. It's funny, but there's also a sadness in Millie's refusal to accept her own failings. It's also chilling to watch Spacek as the childlike Pinky Rose, seemingly dumb as dirt yet studying everything around her---especially others as she apes their movements and mannerisms. As if she's looking for a vessel to inhabit. Then there's Willie, so silent---yet waiting, not only for the birth of her baby, but for something else as she paints her hideous art work. Nothing about "3 Women" is easily explained. It's a subtle, complex film with symbolism to spare. Even the film score is unnerving. Recommended for film purists and of course Altman fans, but watch it for the stellar performances of 3 stunning actresses as well.
Rating:
Summary: MILLIE & PINKY & WILLIE....
Review: As a Robert Altman fan, I'm fully aware that he's a hit or miss director...with equal amounts of hits and misses. Yet, when he hits---he's a genius. "3 Women" contains the genius with the uncanny casting of Shelley Duvall as Millie, a would be sophisticate with no sophistication and Sissy Spacek as Pinky, a strange blank slate of a girl from Texas. The third woman is Willie (Janice Rule), an equally strange (and strangely silent) pregnant middle-aged artist who paints obscenely macabre murals of half-reptile half-human creatures in empty swimming pools. The setting is a small desert town in Arizona where Millie works as a physical therapy aide and meets Pinky, a new aide, who winds up her roommate. Pinky is fascinated by a pair of twins who work at the rest home and begins to study Millie's life and mannerisms. After nearly drowning in a suicide attempt, she winds up in a coma. When she recovers from the coma, Millie is told she has temporary amnesia. But Pinky is no longer Pinky, she's evolving into Millie. Willie will also assume a different role in the film's eerie, pastorial conclusion. Whether you like this or not depends on your tolerance for the unusual and challenging. Certainly the film has it's humor, like Millie's desperate attempts at being a social butterfly and everyone's blatant ignoring of her. It's funny, but there's also a sadness in Millie's refusal to accept her own failings. It's also chilling to watch Spacek as the childlike Pinky Rose, seemingly dumb as dirt yet studying everything around her---especially others as she apes their movements and mannerisms. As if she's looking for a vessel to inhabit. Then there's Willie, so silent---yet waiting, not only for the birth of her baby, but for something else as she paints her hideous art work. Nothing about "3 Women" is easily explained. It's a subtle, complex film with symbolism to spare. Even the film score is unnerving. Recommended for film purists and of course Altman fans, but watch it for the stellar performances of 3 stunning actresses as well.
Rating:
Summary: Shelley Duvall RULES
Review: Director John Ford once said that directors preside over accidents. Altman, who encourages his actors to contribute to the creative process by contributing dialogue, costumes, etc., has engineered some of the happiest accidents of all. His best pictures, like this one, Nashville, and The Long Goodbye, have a spontaneity that can't be faked. Shelley Duvall's character is a complete original. Her prattle--about recipes, tips for picking up men, and interior decoration--is fascinating because it's so precisely observed. Her relationship with Sissy Spacek is similarly unique. The first hour of the film, which is about the unfolding of this relationship, is so minutely rendered, so unusually paced and designed that it seems to belong to its own genre. But the last third IS like Persona, and is slightly less interesting. (Persona didn't need a re-make; it was perfect.) The ending has a slightly hokey feminist film-theory aura about it. But I'd still call this one of my favorite movies, if not my favorite. The costumes and color schemes remind me of how dull most movies look today. People say the picture is "dream-like" as if that were a liability. To me, the greatest movies ARE dreams, and in this one, the dream is so good that I'd almost rather not wake up. (Serious Altman devotees probably know just what sort of dreams he specializes in.) I would absolutely buy it if it appeared on DVD.
Rating:
Summary: A True Cinematic Masterpiece
Review: Dreamlike. Hypnotic. Surreal. Creepy. Yes, Robert Altman's Three Women is all of those things. It's also a true cinematic masterpiece. Shelley Duvall and Sissy Spacek give two of the best performances ever put on film as Millie and Pinky, two assistants at a convalescent home in Desert Springs, California. Who is the most pathetic? Millie, who fancies herself a hip social butterfly when, in reality, she is either ignored by or made fun of by those she considers her confidants and admirers? Or Pinky, the childlike woman who idolizes her? It's a toss up, but these two women become roommates in a swinging singles apartment complex(The Purple Sage)and it isn't long before things start getting really weird. Shelley Duvall's performance here is mesmerizing in it's detail. In improvised monologues she rambles on and on about her (non-existant) beaus, her fab recipe for Chocolate Pudding Tarts, and her chance at becoming the new Brett Girl! It's hysterical! Sissy Spacek is just as hilarious in her wide eyed infatuation with Millie. But if you're thinking this movie is a comedy you are dead wrong. After a bump on the head during an attempted suicide, Pinky begins to think she IS Millie. Is she? Observing at a distance is Willie, the third woman, the pregnant wife of a former cowboy who paints bizarre portraits of a rape and murder among reptilian aliens. Once this theft of personality gets underway, the movie really starts to sink it's hooks in you. Based on a dream, writer/producer/director Altman has created a visually stunning (three-wheelers racing across the desert), provacotive, enthralling character study of three fascinating people. Forget the ambiguous ending--the real question is why hasn't this movie ever been released on video or dvd? I taped it off cable almost 15 years ago and wouldn't sell my copy for anything. For any serious Altman fan--this film is a must own.
Rating:
Summary: Shelley Duvall the shrouded talent
Review: Eight years on since I saw this film on TV I've been dreaming of it's being featured again but all in vain. Shelley Duvall's performance in this film is just scintillating. Winning the Best Actress Award of the Cannes International Film Festival is but an understatement of what she has accomplished. Robert Altman's free-wheeling mode of directing unveiled the hidden talent of Shelley Duvall as a gifted actor. Owning a DVD of "Three Women" definitely is my dream.
Rating:
Summary: 3 Women - My opinion
Review: I don't even know where to begin with this movie. A good way to describe it is bewitching, to say the least; strange; compelling; complex. I remember seeing it for the first time maybe five years or so ago on cable. I don't think I ever wanted a movie so much. I started taping it in the middle of it and finally stumbled upon it a few years later on cable again and taped the whole thing. I've got a full copy now, but the DVD will be great. Shelley Duvall is just amazing in this movie, as is Sissy Spacek. It seems that each time I watch it, I figure something else out about it, which is one of the reasons I enjoy it so much. Just the 1970's imagery alone brings back so many wonderful memories. You'll want to close your eyes and play the score over and over. One scene in particular I love is when Millie returns from the grocery store and proclaims, "We're havin' pigs-in-a-blanket and chocolate puddin' tarts" and shows Pinky all the processed foods she's bought. I love it. You'll love this movie. I watch it at least once a month and cannot wait for the DVD. Think I'll put it in now LOL. Buy it!!
Rating:
Summary: Shelley Duvall and Sissy Spacek ROCK!!!
Review: I first encounterd '3 Women' while flipping through the cable channels on a lazy summer day in 1997. I tuned into the movie right at the scene where Sissy Spacek was screaming at Shelley Duvall from a hospital bed, "DON'T CALL ME PINKY -- GET OUT OF HERE!" It was from this moment on that I became fascinated with Robert Altman's dreamlike masterpiece, '3 Women.' I made sure to tape it during a repeat screening, and for years hoped that it would make it to DVD, for it was never even released on VHS! So when I heard about Criterion giving it the deluxe treatment, I was very excited.'3 Women' is not a conventional film by any means. Every person I invite over to watch it, either loathes it or is so utterly puzzled that they need to have a stiff drink afterwards. It is not a film that all audiences will appreciate. However, those with an interest in unusual characters or artsy cinema should find it a rewarding experience, especially with repeated viewings. It's not so much a matter the film being ahead of it's time -- '3 Women' is in a timespace all of it's own! The strongest attraction of '3 Women' for me, is the remarkable performances by Shelley Duvall and Sissy Spacek. Duvall brings a sense of pathos and false reassurance to Millie. Can't we all think of some Millie-types who we know that try so hard to fit in with society but just fail miserably? Spacek, on the other hand, gives Pinky an other-worldliness that at times borders on a personality disorder right out of the DSM-IV manual. Like '2001: A Space Odyssey,' '3 Women' leaves several mysteries unanswered and leaves the viewer to fill in the blanks. For instance, why was Pinky was warned about the twins early on in the film? Why did Pinky give Ms. Bunwell Millie's social security number instead of her own? And of course, what was the inexplicable final scene all about? Criterion's DVD presention is acceptable. Robert Altman provides a commentary track which is more than welcome. There's also some interesting period photos, a teaser trailer, the theatrical trailer and two TV spots. I would have loved a documentary or some interviews with the cast, but I am quite satisfied with what is presented. Intriguing but never overbearing, '3 Women' is one of the most interesting and brilliant films of all time. Watch it with an open mind, and some wine -- perferably Lemon Satin or Tickled Pink, of course.
Rating:
Summary: Shelley Duvall and Sissy Spacek ROCK!!!
Review: I first encounterd '3 Women' while flipping through the cable channels on a lazy summer day in 1997. I tuned into the movie right at the scene where Sissy Spacek was screaming at Shelley Duvall from a hospital bed, "DON'T CALL ME PINKY -- GET OUT OF HERE!" It was from this moment on that I became fascinated with Robert Altman's dreamlike masterpiece, '3 Women.' I made sure to tape it during a repeat screening, and for years hoped that it would make it to DVD, for it was never even released on VHS! So when I heard about Criterion giving it the deluxe treatment, I was very excited. '3 Women' is not a conventional film by any means. Every person I invite over to watch it, either loathes it or is so utterly puzzled that they need to have a stiff drink afterwards. It is not a film that all audiences will appreciate. However, those with an interest in unusual characters or artsy cinema should find it a rewarding experience, especially with repeated viewings. It's not so much a matter the film being ahead of it's time -- '3 Women' is in a timespace all of it's own! The strongest attraction of '3 Women' for me, is the remarkable performances by Shelley Duvall and Sissy Spacek. Duvall brings a sense of pathos and false reassurance to Millie. Can't we all think of some Millie-types who we know that try so hard to fit in with society but just fail miserably? Spacek, on the other hand, gives Pinky an other-worldliness that at times borders on a personality disorder right out of the DSM-IV manual. Like '2001: A Space Odyssey,' '3 Women' leaves several mysteries unanswered and leaves the viewer to fill in the blanks. For instance, why was Pinky was warned about the twins early on in the film? Why did Pinky give Ms. Bunwell Millie's social security number instead of her own? And of course, what was the inexplicable final scene all about? Criterion's DVD presention is acceptable. Robert Altman provides a commentary track which is more than welcome. There's also some interesting period photos, a teaser trailer, the theatrical trailer and two TV spots. I would have loved a documentary or some interviews with the cast, but I am quite satisfied with what is presented. Intriguing but never overbearing, '3 Women' is one of the most interesting and brilliant films of all time. Watch it with an open mind, and some wine -- perferably Lemon Satin or Tickled Pink, of course.
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