Personal Velocity: Three Portraits

Synopsis: Writer/director Rebecca Miller’s (daughter of Arthur Miller) adapts her own book of short stories, with three short films, portraits of three American women each at a crossroad in their lives. Delia (Kyra Sedgwick) loves her abusive husband but starts to think about the impact of his behaviour on their kids. Cookbook editor Greta (Parker Posey) jumps at the opportunity to edit a celebrated novelist and become the success her famous lawyer father has always wanted. Paula (Fairuza Balk) runs away from New York City to see her mum after narrowly missing death in a car accident and then helps a mysterious runaway.

Personal Velocity: Three Portraits, which won the Grand Jury Prize at the 2002 Sundance Film Festival, as well as the Excellence in Cinematography Award, is certainly no fluffy chick-flick film. Miller attempts to explore serious issues in these three women’s lives. They each had stories to tell and I loved them. But my problem is that, if they were good stories, strong stories, why relegate each of them to a short film? I have nothing against short films, they usually tell short sharp stories with a point. But here I felt like I was watching three trailers - just a taste of what was to come. I wanted to get into their lives and heads at least a little bit more than what was given. We were supplied with a synopsis of their history and how it relates to their current circumstances (perhaps Miller was trying to say that our past catches up with us and guides our future) but it didn’t work for me.

Miller’s heavy use of voice-over narration (by John Ventimiglia) takes away from the fact that this is a film, not a book with pictures. To make a film out of a book, you don’t just simply read the book. The film is littered with expressions best suited to a literary text rather than a film. The plot, the characters - these devices serve to tell the story more than narration. It feels like Miller just couldn’t bear to let go of her words.

However she does get the visual aspect right. Miller studied painting at Yale University, so I guess she has developed an eye for what works. From grainy flashbacks, to color and composition, Miller gets ‘the feel’ of the mood of these women.She also gets the best out of her actors, achieving intense and intimate performances from each of them. However, they just seem to be waiting, waiting, waiting, for the narration to finish… before getting on with their roles.

I found the film disappointing and frustrating. Sedgwick, Posey and Balk put in rich, nuanced performances, only to have to take a back seat to the narration. Just when something gets interesting, the voice starts up again. Let them act! Let them do their thing. I think Miller needs to be more confident that the medium of film can tell her stories. Maybe she just needs to know how to use it. She definitely needs to go to film school, or whatever it takes for her to understand the strengths and limitations of whatever medium she chooses (film, books, theatre, painting) to tell her stories.

 

 

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