3 Backyards

From the writer and director Eric Mendolsohn whose only other film is one of my favorite movies of the last 10yrs or so(Judy Berlin) comes this humble charmer of a film, '3 Backyards'. Here we have in the span of a single day in a mildly upper class neighborhood on a bay in Long Island, three stories unfolding at the same time but that never directly touch each other. The movie is beautiful, humble, small-scaled, well acted, and refreshing. Though it may be disceptably simple, it never deceives; the moving camera being just as intrusive as we want it to be as it floats in on the scene, the characters or the clouds or the leaves on a tree, the somewhat old fashioned dissolves used liberally yet tastefully. Three little gems; three little peeks into the lives of these folks on this particular day. My only complaint, if you can call it that, is that at an hour and a half, the movie ends too soon. I wish it could have kept on and on. One story is about a man (played by Elias Koteas) having marriage problems who when his business trip gets cancelled last minute, instead of returning home, hangs out near the airport hotel and begins to follow a mysterious woman One is about a little girl who on her way to school loses an expensive bracelet of her mother's and who must retrieve it from a seemingly dangerous backyard before she can return home. The third story concerns a lady (played by Edie Falco) who is given the honor(much to the envy of her neighbor) of driving a local, semi-famous movie actress to the waiting ferry. We go back and forth between each tale seamlessly and by the end, though the characters do not literally ever interact, there is some heart-pumping, unnameably agreeable cohesion to it all. Now that I realize this sounds awfully similar to a mundane movie review, I will stop and simply encourage anyone so inclined to go see it. It's playing now at Cinema Village on 12th st. near Union Square.

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

I will never receive a sufficient explanation as to what ties together these three very boring and time-consuming vignettes. For example A man observes a woman trying to get a job in a café. He watches her as she unsuccessfully attempts to do so. This man who was previously indifferent to his own wife is now suddenly absorbed with overwhelming sympathy for a person he has known for exactly 3 minutes. He then proceeds to traipse through a very dangerous and substandard neighborhood looking for her. Are we supposed to buy this notion?

A neighbor jumps at the opportunity to take a mysterious Hollywood personality for a ride to catch the ferry. An unforeseen interruption of her day is insignificant compared with the possibility of ingratiating herself with the new VIP in the village. She is spurned. She then is transformed into a rock!

Utterly contrived and unbelievable.

This is a dreadful film, a terribly dreadful film. I alert all those who may read these reviews to avoid it if you're looking for a productive way to spend a couple of hours. A total waste of time.

It is said that "Seinfeld" was a show about nothing. This is a movie about nothing.

Another way to look at this movie is to see it as three separate short films. I have seen several hour-long shows on TV which consisted of several short films, some of which looked good enough to be Oscar-nominated. Each of these films might have been that good. It appears all three of the main characters lives in the same suburban neighborhood.

Whether you enjoy this movie or not depends on how open you are to independent films that have artistic value. I can be, though whether I would be depends on what they are like. This movie happens to be accessible to me, with plot lines I can get interested in. Still, this seems to be nothing more than a day in the life of three people in one town. For two of the people, it is not a typical day. And for those two people, I find myself quite interested in seeing what the result will be. But I get to the end and find myself not quite satisfied. I have to be content with the journey, and not having paid, I can be satisfied just with a a part of what I just saw. I enjoyed Christina's story the most but am not quite sure what it was.

I did see at least three really good acting performances, though all the leading actors did well too. Edie Falco reminded me of Ellen DeGeneres, though not quite that perky The short hair helped. Then there is the waitress with the attitude at the diner. But the standout performer may just have been the woman in the blue dress.

Is it worth it? Maybe.

So... no prizes for guessing that '3 Backyards' did indeed also bore me to tears too. The contrasting reviews here are interesting: there are those which praise the gentle tones and sensitive depictions etc. of real 'non-Hollywood' life. And then, there are those reviews which most artfully hit the nail on its proverbial head: the movie is boring, self indulgent, and stretches the limits of one's concentration span just to get from scene to scene - never mind to the movie's end! While watching this movie, I was reminded of sitting at a table in a restaurant which is sited inches too near to the next table, while my infinitely more interesting companion is late. Thus, I must be forced for a certain period to listen to the most gruesomely banal conversation, leaking from the suited bores beside me; that is to say, people who couldn't string one original idea together - if their very lives depended on doing so. Alas, the screenplay writer from this movie must've learned much from folk none too dissimilar to those nondescript inanities, sitting beside me then - because this movie lacks even half of a moment's worth of brilliance.

A miserably boring, exercise in futility. "2/10", is its true rating, this reviewer declares, and not "1/10" - solely because the production and acting were not at all bad. Watch this movie if you must, and if only to know how an arty movie can also fail to engage its audience. Gladly, I very much know that not all Art movies are as boring as 3 Backyards, for I'm no 'Trashformers' fan!