Third Person movie review & film summary (2014)

Occasionally, sparks do fly thanks to the high-caliber cast, especially the electricity generated by the under-the-gun Pulitzer-winning novelist in the form of Liam Neeson—nicely showing his softer side after too many empty-calorie action thrillers—and Olivia Wilde as a journalist who is his tempestuous protégé and mistress. But also, somewhat surprisingly, there is contentious heat between Maria Bello’s lawyer and Mila Kunis as a luckless client who is enmeshed in an ugly battle over child visitation rights.

But as the plot moves in and out of a trio of tales that unfold in Paris, Rome and New York, this layered melodrama strains for emotional impact with only occasional success while eventually blurring into an overlong and contrived parlor trick. By the end, the gimmick overwhelms the telling, causing us to expend too much energy into figuring out the connections between the characters instead of simply being drawn into their predicaments and empathizing with them.

Director/screenwriter Paul Haggis was somewhat unfairly vilified almost a decade ago when his similarly multi-storied "Crash" bested the expected Best Picture winner "Brokeback Mountain" at the Oscars. The blame for that outcome, of course, should have been aimed at the timid academy voters. Still, some have claimed that "Third Person" reflects his response to having to cope with the aftermath of that career peak (which followed his 2004 Oscar win for his "Million Dollar Baby" script) as well as his recent status as a Scientology dropout.

This time, instead of making a social statement such as "Crash" did about racial tensions and police corruption in L.A., Haggis zeroes in on tenuous relationships that are beset by coincidences—between spouses; between parents and children; between strangers; between lovers. In every case, a third person tends to intrude and further complicate matters.

Neeson is ensconced in the City of Lights as he toils over his latest tome, trysts with his comely and much younger paramour Wilde (whose performance highlight involves her giddily racing naked through the hallways of a swank hotel after Neeson cruelly strands her outside his room) and deals with the drowning death of his son while on the phone with his unduly understanding back-at-home wife (Kim Basinger).