Third Person

Writer-director Paul Haggis interlaces three stories: A famous novelist and his journalist lover in Paris (Liam Neeson, Olivia Wilde), an American businessman and a Romanian refugee in Rome (Adrien Brody, Moran Atias), and an emotionally unstable woman and her vindictive ex-husband in New York (Mila Kunis, James Franco). The stories echo and reflect each other, but they don't intersect or overlap in the same obvious way as Haggis' 2005 Oscar-winner Crash. Themes morph and recur—deception, betrayal, children in jeopardy—until we wonder if all (or any) of the stories are happening in “reality.” Haggis teases us, keeps us guessing—and leaves us guessing, for that matter. His movie may well annoy and alienate some, but others will find it fascinating and hard to shake when the lights come up.