3 Women (1977)

(Originally published in Rocky Mountain Bullhorn)

Robert Altman’s Ingmar Bergman-esque psychodrama 3 Women charts immature Texas waif Pinky’s (Sissy Spacek) move to an arid California town, where she begins working at a nursing home spa and obsessively latches onto co-worker Millie (Shelley Duvall), a walking, talking McCalls who blathers on about pigs-in-a-blanket recipes and her favorite colors. Altman’s preoccupation with American tableaux reveals apocalyptic levels of banality in the California rental community in which Millie, Pinky, and a third woman (Janice Rule) reside, and his elliptical film chillingly details Pinky’s sycophantic fascination with Millie. The mystifying Jungian-influenced conclusion is amplified by Altman’s languid, hallucinatory visuals – inspired, legendarily, by a dream – and Bodhi Wind’s disturbingly serpentine murals. This third act descent into madness is layered with pretentious ‘70s artiness, but 3 Women’s minor shortcomings ultimately aren’t enough to derail the film’s early, incisive portrait of psychological alienation and the desperate, pathetic ways people voraciously cling to their obscure – and unworthy – objects of desire.

Comments

[Wawa]

I can't believe you don't have a review of the new Metallica movie. Heavy Metal Legends in therapy? In the words of Kenny Banya in Seinfeld: "That's Gold, Jerry, Gold!"

[Joe Grossberg]

Wawa:

You're not keeping up-to-date on your Schager -- http://www.filmcritic.com/misc/emporium.nsf/2a460f93626cd4678625624c007f2b46/f71e0eab2598355388256ead0056327e?OpenDocument

[Nick]

HA! Glad to see YOU'RE keeping up with my reviewing madness, Facce....

[Joe Grossberg]

To be honest, I was a little disappointed that you referred to Hetfield and Ulrich as Dad and Mom, instead of Butch and Bitch.