3 Women (1977)
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3 Women Movie Review
3 Women is a 1977 psychological drama film directed by Robert Altman and starring Shelley Duvall and Sissy Spacek. It’s a very overrated movie.
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“I had the most wonderful dream…“
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Two roommates and physical therapists, one a vain woman and the other an awkward teenager, share an increasingly bizarre relationship. First and foremost, I am not a fan of Robert Altman. His filmmaking style doesn’t appeal to me as it favors style over substance. This particular movie also falls in that category as the plot here is pretty much non-existent and the themes that the critics found were mostly made-up as the film itself is pretty much empty of meaning. It’s ambiguous for the sake of being ambiguous.
In this pretentious film, plot and characterization don’t matter. It’s all about the atmosphere. And I have to say that I appreciated the latter. That is because the movie features fantastic audio-visuals. The cinematography is fantastic with some memorable imagery while the score from Gerald Busby is strikingly creepy and otherworldly, accompanying its mysterious atmosphere effortlessly well. The movie is honestly worth seeing only for that score and atmosphere.
Altman made this movie after he experienced this crazy dream that became this film. It’s further proof that adapting dreams into movies doesn’t work for the most part. It’s not enough as you need to include, well, a basic plot at least. The movie is slow, meandering and boring, only coming alive during a couple of crazy scenes, but for the most part I was disinterested in following it.
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Shelley Duvall is excellent and the acting standout obviously, but Sissy Spacek is also very strong and Janice Rule was memorable in a much smaller role. These actresses did the best that they could with such thankless roles as Altman never bothered to actually develop these characters properly.
I am not a fan of Robert Altman’s filmmaking style and 3 Women is no different. This movie offers another proof that just because you had a crazy dream, you shouldn’t go on to make a film out of it. You also need a story and this film had no plot, no characterization and no purpose to it whatsoever. Shelley Duvall and Sissy Spacek did the best that they could in such thankless roles. The movie is worth seeing for the striking atmosphere and score, both being very mysterious and creepy. Altman here tried to emulate Bergman, but Bergman at his most pretentious.
My Rating – 3
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