3 Backyards

Was such a waste of time .No Aim , no sound track , no connections , not even philosophical.I wish I could buy back the time I wasted watching this film.You will get board waiting for something interesting to happen.There was one scene when Falco was trying to find out whether the lady who was in the restaurant was the same lady who got hit with the car accident and you say oh here it comes , this is the threshold of the film.The scene ends suddenly with no explanation , and absolutely no connection to the next scene. This film is really a shame on the film industry and a disrespect for all viewers because it does not respect their time.

Eric Mendelsohn is a new name in the movie industry. He both wrote and directed this very quiet little film that for many will be a frustrating sense of on linear storytelling or it could be criticized for having no story at all. It is a a mood piece, an isolated day somewhere on Long Island where we meet three different characters in unrelated situations except that each character unveils an aspect of humanity that is as quietly real as is unnoticed. Somehow the result of seeing these three stories leaves the audience feeling more fragile and more vulnerable, as though someone knows some of the secrets that hide in each of us.

The film opens at 3:30 in the morning with John (Elias Koteas) sitting at a table opposite his asleep wife (Kathryn Erbe). In silence John packs his suitcase, looks lovingly at his asleep daughter, and as he is quietly leaving the house his wife confronts him with his lack of communication: we are observing a marriage that is failing. John is leaving for a business trip but his flight is cancelled and rescheduled for the next day. John decides to accept the airline's offer stay over in the airport hotel and while checking in he sees a young African woman in a blue dress (Danai Gurira) being turned away when she asks for employment. John checks in and then walks to a diner where he again encounters the African girl applying for a job as a waitress: she is dismissed and yet leaves a tip for the grouchy waitress (Pam La Testa) who has mistreated her. John at first ignores the situation then a note of empathy strikes and he follows the girl with the idea of giving her some much needed money. A tragedy occurs and John's sensitivity is changed and we see him meeting his wife in a parking lot.

Simultaneously a young girl Christina (Rachel Resheff) is playing with her mother's birthday present (a gold charm bracelet) when her school bus arrives and, missing it and unable to get the bracelet off, she takes a short cut through a yard, seeing signs on trees for a missing poodle, and encounters a young man in an embarrassing situation and she runs to school. At school she realizes her charm bracelet is not on her arm. After school she retraces her steps, finds the lost poodle, and again encounters the mysterious young man who has found the bracelet and Christina is able to retrieve it, frustrated about her actions and about the fact that the bracelet is not hers to keep.

And at the same time a friendly neighborhood painter Peggy (Edie Falco) is asked by a new neighbor, the actress (Embeth Davidtz) to take her to the ferry. The actress is a stranger and on the way to the ferry the excited Peggy tries to become a friend but discovers that actress is a solitary women who breaks down in tears. Despite Peggy's need to be a should to cry on the actress treats her with distance, leaving Peggy without her dream of getting to know another world and being hurt at being dismissed.

Each of these seemingly meaningless stories carries an afterburn that is so subtle that the messages may be missed. But these are coincidences that are unexpected and have a brief life of their own and then end abruptly. The film leaves the viewer with a lot of food for thought about how happenstance our lives can seem. It is a very small film, enhanced by a lovely musical score by Michael Nicholas and written and directed with uncanny sensitivity and subtlety.

Grady Harp

... but, obviously, not everyone's.

If you appreciate excellent acting, beautiful cinematography and don't need to be spoon-fed a message or hung up on plot, this may be a film for you.

It is daringly ambitious in that the dialog is almost non-existent, leaving the entire weight of the film in the hands of the actors and the camera and the soundtrack — and, of course, the director. All succeed marvelously as three day-in-a-life stories are laid out, each with nervous overtones and unique tension.

Searching for a unifying theme is a Rorschach test; you will make of it what you will. The inability of people to communicate on a personal level — or any level at all, for that matter — can lead to all sorts of unintended consequences, as you will see. I thought Edie Falco's acting was a bit blunt, but Elias Koteas's performance is marvelous. Embeth Davidtz conveys the most amount of mystery with the fewest amount of words — acting at its finest.

It is a wonderfully modern, realistic film, with the majority of the spoken words coming over a phone and conclusions largely unresolved. Still, I was engaged for every one of its 88 minutes. It's been a long time since a film held me so tightly.

Three separate stories that never intersect and never really align to explain why these stories are in the same film. Sure, you can say that the main characters all have "challenging days" and "learn a lot about themselves", but that does not help this movie FEEL like a movie. Rather it feels like three short films strung together with flute music. We never learn enough about these characters to really care about them.

Yes, some of the photography was beautifully done but much of it seemed self-serving as if the Director made this movie to amuse himself. 10 minutes in, you are already tired of the slow zooms and fades that are "played with" throughout the movie - something you might expect from a 20 year old, student filmmaker. It is almost as if, after the shooting was over, it became obvious that there was nothing compelling on the celluloid so it became necessary to distract the viewer with optical effects.

Critical reviews have been positive though - I can't help to think these reviewers are just so sick of main stream Hollywood, they find it necessary to prop up every art house film that takes a chance.

The actors do what they can with very little to work with, but their efforts can't save it. There is very little here.

Of the 2 rating - one is for Edie Falco, who plays the only character that has any (in this film) and whose vulnerability isn't accompanied by a musical score that is reminiscence of Psycho and/or the Perils of Pauline! I liked the neighbor, too. (Note to Edie - You should have tossed her a-- out of the car.)

The other is for the beautiful images and photography,in this indulgent waste of time.

The rest of the characters were mere contrived vehicles for emotional manipulation and senseless studies in unrealistic settings. NIMBY!

I resented being taken for such a ride, but what really infuriates me, are self-impressed reviewers who have the "magic" to see into the true and deeper meaning of the film and rave about it. Yuck!