Personal Velocity: Three Portraits (2002)

Three Women Travelling at the Speed of Life.
Personal Velocity: Three Portraits is an adaptation of Rebecca Miller's collection of short stories, [[ASIN:0802139183 Personal Velocity]]. (The film was the Grand Jury Prize winner at Sundance 2002.) Miller is a director, screenwriter and actress. She is also the daughter of famed playwright Arthur Miller ([[ASIN:0140247734 Death of a Salesman]]) and the wife of acclaimed actor Daniel Day-Lewis. As the film's title suggests, Personal Velocity is an "arthouse film" (shot in digital video) about three women whose lives are in transition (velocity is the rate of change of position). Delia (Kyra Sedgwick) is a sweet yet resilient woman who flees from an abusive marriage with her children to reclaim the sexual power she has lost. Greta (Parker Posey) is an ambitious book editor who leaves her uninspired husband (a fact-checker at the New Yorker) to pursue her own professional aspirations. Paula (Fairuza Balk) is on the run with a young hitchhiker following a tragic incident on a New York street. All three women have problems with men (difficult fathers, abusive or unambitious husbands, dates motivated only by lust). All three actresses bring compelling performances to Miller's film in three parts. Each bittersweet part stands alone; as a trilogy they offer small that epiphanies resonate among each other. This film may appeal to women more than men.

G. Merritt

I've found me another wonderful segmented film.
I don't know why there are so many attempts at this sort of films: individual episodes that approach and overlap the same concept. Perhaps it is because it is easier to craft episodes with power rather than worry about an arc of 90 minutes or more.

But we do have them and some work amazingly well. This movie is the story of three woman, told in separate segments. Each of the characters has to some extent engaged in self-delusion as to who they really are as persons and each one finds herself in the midst of a major life crisis. As each character deals with their situation, they begin to find out who they really are as persons and to find a possible path to self liberation, happiness and fulfillment in their lives. Delia (Kyra Sedgwick) is an abused wife and mother, who finds personal liberation by finding the courage to finally leave her abusive husband, and then finds her personal dignity and power by rediscovering her sexuality. Greta (Parker Posey), is a wife and daughter, who has long suffered, first by being caught in the middle in a struggle between her powerful, ambitious father and her weaker, more fragile mother for her love and affection, then later in an act of rebellion against her father, ends up in a loving but passionless marriage in which she has suppressed all her own personal ambitions. An opportunity for success rekindles in her all her own passions and ambition, as she struggles to finally break free from the influence of her parents, to come to terms with her husband and marriage and to be who she really is as a person. Paula (Fairuza Balk) is a young woman, who finds herself pregnant and who after a terrible accident, in a state of shock starts out on a journey to try and escape and make sense of what is happening to her. An encounter with an abused runaway helps her refocus on her own plight and discover her own ability to care about others besides her self.

All the acting in the film is excellent, but Parker Posey as Greta really stands out. This is the first film that makes use of Parker's ability as an actress to convey emotion and internal conflict, without dialog, simply by the expression on her beautiful face, and it is absolutely stunning to watch. She turns Greta, who could have been very unsympathetic, into a character that one can care about. This is very intelligent and very complex film. One that makes the viewer think deeply. There are no tight, neatly wrapped up endings in this movie, you have no way of knowing if the characters have made the right choices in their lives. This makes it tough for audiences and critics to embrace this movie, but if you do look deeply at it, and think about it, you will come to appreciate and love it.

In their own direction, at their own speed
Three short stories of very different young women. Each story takes enough time to develop a character and show an arc of personal change that gives a sense of something significant having happened while still leaving the future open. The theme of personal development not only in a particular speed and direction, the "velocity" of the title, but also from a very particular place and in reaction to particular events, tie the stories together. The main characters are portrayed in situations that may make us question their choices, past or present, but they aren't judged.

I agree with the other positive reviews. It's an unusual film, real, insightful, absorbing, raw, sophisticated but not pretentious, compelling, thought provoking. The film also looks unusual, incorporating some edgy photography, occasional freeze-frames and staccato editing of action and stills, but not so much as to become tedious or lose its freshness. The casting and direction are pitch perfect.