Personal Velocity: Three Portraits

Rating:
Summary: Fine acting, interesting, subtle
Review: 'Personal Velocity: Three Portraits' is a touching and beautiful film that manages to remain unsentimental. The three heroines are complex and believable, as are all characters in the film, though most others are given only a surface glance. The acting is so well done, though, that even minor characters almost betray their backrounds with no words.

Kyra Sedgwick plays Delia, a hard woman with a beautiful rear and a realistic attitude. Delia's story is a strong opening tale. Each story gives a brief boigraphy of its protagonist, and Delia's backstory is lightheartedly told. However, her past, and certainly her present, are heavy, and viewers see that her independence as a girl saves her in her adulthood. Sedgwick is viscerally real.

Parker Posey is Greta. Greta's episode works well as a middle installment. It is not as dramatic as Delia's, but it is, in some ways, more depressing. Greta is a cookbook editor whose main antagonist is herself. She is intelligent, financially comfortable, and ambitious. Greta realizes that the lattermost quality, along with her tendency to stray from her devout spouse, must be met and dealt with. Posey is an understated and sympathetic Greta.

The final episode features Fairuza Balk as a young, troubled woman with a compassionate heart. This is in some ways the strongest story, but I think that it is simply a solid conclusion. Paula (Balk) finds herself wandering in her car after witnessing a devastating car accident, the only aspect that connects the three portraits. Paula's story is at the same time the most grim and the most upbeat. She ends up being the kindest of the three characters, perhaps only because of her experiences.

Families are prominently featured in this movie. As stated above, every part is well acted, from Delia's high school friend to the detached hitchhiker that Paula picks up. An artistic device used beginning in the opening shots involves freezing the frame like a snapshot. In this film, it is affective, and is not a gimmick.

The three portraits are subtly connected, and there is no blatant summation. I found many of the choices made, including using a male voiced narration instead of a female voice-over, interesting and appropriate. This movie is recommended, but do not expect a certain kind of movie: let it surprise you.

Rating:
Summary: The more I think about it...
Review: ...the more I like it. At first view this film doesn't seem to be anything very special or coherent, but taken at face value - a unique sort of character study - the viewer begins to appreciate its craft. None of these stories was particularly profound, and I didn't care too much for the first segment, although I do think it was well executed. But when you start getting into Posey's and Balk's acting style, you really get into the film and start rooting for these characters, whatever their goals may be. The digital film medium enhances this film a lot, with wonderful close-ups and POV shots. I barely even noticed the movement of the hand-held camera, which is the mark of true precision. This film allowed its lead actresses to explore the depths of their talent, and they reached as far as they could to achieve it. This film is a wonderful chance to see three popular actresses in some very different and heartfelt roles, and I'm glad I got the chance to see that.

Rating:
Summary: Three women recover personal strength and self-reliance
Review: As so many films are told from the perspective of a male protagonist, it's refreshing to see a movie in which men are the secondary characters and we get to watch a woman deal with an ongoing conflict that is the narrative focus from beginning to end. "Personal Velocity" is actually three short films, but the effect is the same. Each of the central characters faces a complication that overturns her world and requires her to find a new way of living her life. Each of them is strong, comes across as three-dimensional, and makes us care what happens to them. Interestingly, male characters play a role in their transformation, but in ways that make these women even more self-reliant and resolved.

The opening story is a neatly crafted account of a working class woman who regains her independence after marriage to an abusive husband (the flashes of his violence are shocking and brutal). But it's not enough that she takes her children and escapes. She must regain her emotional independence as well, and she finds herself in a situation where she must free herself again; this time from the leeringly casual abuse of a younger man who enjoys taunting her with invitations to sex. When she is done with him, you see her finally achieve the personal power (velocity) she once had as a younger woman.

The stories of the other two women are likewise well crafted, each taking a journey that has parallels with the first but explores different narrative terrain. One is a more comic tale of a young educated woman who through luck and circumstance becomes a "late bloomer" and suddenly outgrows her cute, devoted husband (a fact checker for the New Yorker), as well as a jerky, condescending former classmate and an overbearingly successful father. (It's his observation that she's achieved her own "personal velocity," and coming from the mouth of an unsympathetic character, the title of the film takes on a certain irony.)

The last story is (according to the director in her commentary) a quickly assembled piece that uses conventions of the road movie to tell the story of a young woman who ventures into what may become a romantic interlude with a young man who is suddenly killed by a passing car. The abrupt shift of the story sends her reeling, and she becomes involved with another male companion, a troubled and physically abused boy she picks up on the road. By the end of the story, her car stolen, she is able to find the direction she wants to take, and she sets off afoot, having discovered a self confidence that until now has eluded her.

The three sections of the film are clearly dramatized short stories, an effect that is reinforced by a narrator's voice-overs. There are mixed opinions about the use of this device in film, but it works here as a distancing technique that reinforces these as stories and not just visual slices of life. In the middle story especially, but in all of them, it intensifies the ironies of what we're seeing. The news reports of the pedestrian fatality in the early stories ironically weave them together with the final story, in which that fatality occurs. We're reminded that, for all the differences among them, these characters inhabit the same universe, though they are strangers to each other.

The digital filming and brisk editing give an edginess to the visuals. And the performances are fine. The commentaries on the DVD add a level of appreciation, as they often do for indie films made under severe constraints but with utter dedication. I recommend this film to anyone interested in movies about women's lives. It is sharp, intelligent, and emotionally engaging.

Rating:
Summary: Three great actresses in one movie!
Review: Based on Rebecca Miller's book by the same name, this movie holds up pretty well, and is even directed by the author. It is broken into three parts: Paula, Greta, and Delia. I noticed that in the book, there was one more woman, she was both an artist and an adultress. I'm assuming it was taken out because it seemed similar to Greta's story.

Delia, was played by Kyra Sedgwick--a tough wife and mother who has to leave her husband because he beats her. She picks up her family, goes to live with a childhood acquaintance, and tries to lead a normal life.

Greta, who was played by the amazing Parker Posey, is an editor who gets a chance to work on a book by an up and coming author. It seems that she has a problem with fidelity. She has a sweet husband that she doesn't deserve and daddy issues. I think that this was, by far, the best story, and probably the most complete.

Last is Paula, played by Fairuza Balk. She comes close to losing her life, so she takes a chance and picks up a hitchhiker while on the way to visit her mother, who she hasn't seen in two years.

I really liked this movie, but I think that the acting and the filming [pulled] me in more than the stories themselves. It was sort of like reading a book: there was a male narrator throughout, and there were still photos all through the movie. The still photos reminded me a little bit of "Run, Lola, Run," but they were in slow motion. I found that method of filming very different and interesting. That and the narrator gave you different insights into the film. I found the stories a little lacking sometimes only at the end, because, as I mentioned before, they felt a little unfinished. I know that not all movies or stories have to finish completely, and you don't always have to know "what happens" at the end. Certain movies, like this one, need a kind of finality in order for you to feel satisfied. I recommend it, and think it did deserve to win an award at Sundance.

Rating:
Summary: Actually 2 And A Half Stars
Review: How is it, that this film, recieved an award for cinematography?
The problem with films made by people of literature is that they are often non-visual. Miller uses an awful voice over technique where a narrator narrates sections of her book over a series of still images. The idea may sound nice but the result is irritating and un-cinematic.

The acting in Personal Velocity is quite strong which is what saves the film. Ebert said "My thoughts were focused on the characters. That is a compliment to Kuras and Miller. If I had been thinking about the visual medium, they would have been doing something wrong." This is a story of three women. Each story is distinct from the other. In each story we hear a newscaster talk about a tragic car accident which claimed a life. We later find out the woman in the last story was almost killed in that accident. But unfortunatley there is no real payoff to why we hear the newscaster announce the accident in the first story. All in all this is a good film, highly enjoyable and i'm some will love it. I also recomend "A Summers Tale" by Eric Rohmer, although a world apart it is a fantastic briliant film about a guy and three women.

Rating:
Summary: Awful X 3
Review: I bought this DVD before seeing it because I love the three actresses who are the main characters in the three stories. They are all awful. This unfortunate as all three of these actresses have shown their talent in other films.
The main problem with this film is the narration that continues over the entire film. The purpose of narration is to tell the viewer something that isn't already obvious, but this film uses narration to tell the most minute of details which is already obvious.
If you must see this, rent it, don't buy. Anyone who actually likes this film is welcome to my copy. I tried to sell it on ebay but no one wanted it.

Rating:
Summary: It penetrates with warm sun light after the rain
Review: I can relate to all of the three main characters in this movie. I think that we (at least I) sometimes forget what we really want in our lives or the purpose of our lives just by "living" date to date surrounded by others' needs, priorities, or virtues. At some level, we all struggle to find a way to regain "real" self. This movie reminded me of the beauty of finding it again with our own "personal velocity".

Rating:
Summary: What's moving your life?
Review: Many of these reviews have given detailed descriptions of what the stories are about...so I won't delve more into that aspect. I want to add to that though the unifying feature to the three stories -- which is finding what is "moving" each of these characters forward. It is admirable that the movie doesn't give the answers, just gives the human beings. Of the three I found the last story -- Paula and the hitchhiker, to be the most moving, and redeeming. The connection between Paula and the wounded character played by Lou Taylor Pucci is palable and heartbreaking -- conveyed by their eyes. It is about feeling for another person -- and in the feeling Paula expresses (now emerging from her state of shock) she identifies with the hurt she sees in the boy. She sees how vulnerable he is -- notices he is just like a little boy, just a baby -- and had been hurt, tortured really -- then she wants to take him home and protect him. The boy can't trust that, however. Both actors had heartbreaking, expressive eyes -- and it is enlightening to see a film about love that is not about sex, but about caring and protecting another.

Rating:
Summary: Five star acting in 2 1/2 star movie
Review: Parker Posey, Kyra Sedwick, and Fairuza Balk all get umpteen stars from me for their great portrayals of women who have reached a point in life where they know something has got to change.
There are three women: Delia, Greta, and Paula. Their lives are unraveling, and only they can make the choice as to what to do next and if it is the best thing to do.
I thought the first two stories were extremely depressing. I honestly didn't know the tone to the entire movie. I tend to not want to know a lot about a movie I am going to watch because what would be the point to watching them? It's like looking into someone else's life watching these stories.
My thoughts are this -- Kyra Sedwick's "Delia" is a blue jean wearing chick who has a past of being promiscuous and a present she wants to escape.
Parker Posey is "Greta", the woman bent on success and high on infidelity. Some of her thoughts were laugh out loud funny.
Fairuza Balk is "Paula", young, pregnant, and freaked out by an accident that she sees happen to a man she has just met. She runs away and picks up a young mysterious hitchhiker This is the best story because it ends on an unbeat note.
The writing was good, and I liked the style of filmmaking Rebecca Miller has incorporated with her stories.
It still left me with a bitter taste. It is certainly not a feel good movie, but it is at times compelling.
It's intriguing enough that I did like it despite it's frankness.

Rating:
Summary: ...intelligent and excellent cinematic experience.
Review: Personal Velocity is the story of three different women who collide with a life crisis at different times in their lives. Delia (Kyra Sedgwick) has frequently been abused by the man she loves, a love that has tied her down and made her incapable of escaping, but now she realizes that it is time for a change. Greta (Parker Posey) is mourning the death of her mother as she has settled down due to her parents divorce that is the origin for her hate for infidelity. On the exterior she displays a person who is content with what life has to offer her; however, when a big time author asks her to be his editor, she has a chance to get back to where she once was, on the top of the world. The question is whether she can take steps to remove the ties that hold her down. Paula (Fairuza Balk) has recently witnessed a traumatic death and found out that she is pregnant with a child. Confused, she begins to drive home to see her mother as she is desperate for some guidance or a sign. On the way she sees a hitch hiker, a teenager, that she interprets as a sign so she picks him up. The three women are reaching their life decisions at different velocities in their lives. Their personal velocities are clearly represented as one has children, one does not even think of having any, and the third has one on the way. This makes the story unique in regards to women and their choices, which often are influenced by external factors. In the end, Miller provides an intelligent and excellent cinematic experience.