Plot: What’s it about?
Third Person is another film from Director Paul Haggis (Crash) that attempts to tell multiple stories that all interconnect at some point. The three stories take place in Paris, Rome and New York, respectively. Liam Neeson stars in one story as Michael, he’s a writer having an affair with Anna (Olivia Wilde). She’s a writer as well, but the two of them have a complicated relationship. Anna has a few secrets of her own as well. The second story-line involves James Franco as Rick. He is an artist who is trying to protect his son from his crazy mother played by Mila Kunis. She attempted to kill her son at one point, and clearly, Rick wants nothing to do with her. The last plot involves an American businessman Scott played by Adrian Brody who travels to Italy and falls in love with a Gypsy. Ultimately, Scott gets in over his head when he tries to rescue the Gypsy’s daughter after she’s kidnapped. If all of this sounds like overkill for one film, you’d be correct. Haggis does a good job of giving all the plots room to breathe, but the film does seem to bite off more than it can chew, so to speak.
I admit that I find a lot of Haggis’ work overrated, but I was fairly involved throughout most of Third Person. I think the cast played a large part in that. Everyone is at the top of their game here. It’s nice to see Neeson play an actual human and not an indestructible war machine such as in the Taken films. Olivia Wilde also does strong work, and I am sure many of her fans will appreciate her nude scene where she disrobes outside of Michael’s hotel room before he locks the door on her. I found all of the story-lines as interesting as the other, and nothing feels shortchanged. It seems like the type of film that would also benefit from repeat viewings. The film has a lot going on, but it’s so well structured that nothing feels sloppy or overly confusing. It’s very worth checking out.
Video: How’s it look?
I’ve got to give Haggis credit, he’s experimented with several different types of film stock in his movies and with Third Person, the 2.35:1 AVC HD image is nothing short of perfection. (Ok, maybe just a bit short of perfection given our score). Detail is crisp and sharp, contrast levels are smooth and consistent with flesh tones looking warm and natural. There’s not shortage of eye candy in the film, though we go from the porcelain skin of Olivia Wilde to seeing Liam Neeson’s years in contrasting scenes. Still, this Blu-ray more than delivers an amazing image.
Audio: How’s it sound?
The disc packs a DTS HD Master Audio soundtrack that’s warm and acceptable (yes, acceptable) and thoroughly pleasing to the senses. Vocals range from quiet talks to all out yell fights (Kunis and Franco’s characters get into it). Direction effects are a bit few and far between, but it’s still a fairly good-sounding mix. There’s nothing that really stands out as loud, per se, but a very standard, if above average, mix.
Supplements: What are the extras?
- Audio Commentary – Writer/Director Paul Haggis is joined by some of the crew including Laurence Bennett (Production Design), Jo Francis (Editor), Michael Nozik (Producer) and Moran Atias (actor) for a pretty talkative, but somewhat bland discussion of the film. It’s a bit long, as is the film itself @ 137 minutes, but fans of the film will certainly enjoy it.
- Q & A with Paul Haggis – Running just over 30 minutes is a rather robust Q & A session with Haggis. These are becoming more prevalent on Blu-rays and they’re a nice little feature to have, though some of the material is redundant if the commentary has been listened to.
- The Making of Third Person – The standard EPK with some interviews with the cast and crew as well as some behind the scenes footage.
- Theatrical Trailer
