3 Women Review
Few filmmakers short of Luis_Buñuel have made better onscreen use of dreams than Robert_Altman, and 3 Women is the film in which he most successfully (and disturbingly) captured the hazy logic and off-kilter visual perspectives of the unconscious state. Shelley_Duvall delivered the best work of her career as a woman so shallow that it never occurs to her that people are laughing at her behind her back, and Sissy_Spacek is brilliant as Pinky, the naive girl who worships her; their emotional give and take as they begin to exchange personalities exemplifies the kind of risky but satisfying performances that Altman knows how to draw from actors. Gerald_Busby's quietly troubling, discordant score and Bodhi Wind's surreal artwork are singularly appropriate aural and visual backdrops, while Charles_Rosher_Jr.'s cinematography layers the images in intoxicating washes of yellow and blue. While Altman has made a career out of endings that don't spell themselves out, the conclusion of 3 Women is both vague and provocative -- have we witnessed the aftermath of a tragedy, a descent into insanity, or a quiet but defiant call to arms? Altman isn't telling, but one can read 3 Women in a number of ways and still walk away convinced that it's a work of singular vision and emotional power from one of the most gifted American filmmakers of his generation. Mark Deming, Rovi
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