Unlike many movies you'll see or have seen about the fairer sex, neither wallowing in Lifetime movie affirmations and morbidity nor batting its lashes with cutie-pie comedy.
Personal Velocity (2002)
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:99
Fresh:68
Rotten:31
Average Rating:6.5/10
Consensus: Uneven, but a keenly observed and well-acted film about three women's lives.
Runtime: 2 hrs 5 mins
Genre: Dramas
Synopsis: Three very different women confront life-changing decisions in this film derived from Rebecca Miller's book of short stories. Each woman has reached a turning point in her life. Delia (Kyra... Three very different women confront life-changing decisions in this film derived from Rebecca Miller's book of short stories. Each woman has reached a turning point in her life. Delia (Kyra Sedgwick) finally takes a stand and leaves her abusive husband, but still has to find a way to regain her power and life; Greta (Parker Posey) achieves more professional success than she ever imagined, but has fidelity issues when it comes to her marriage and her lovable but dull husband; and, on the heels of a tragic accident, Paula (Fairuza Balk) has to contend with an unplanned pregnancy and the status of her personal relationships. Shot in digital video, the film is peppered with various effects and editing that achieve an intimate look and feel. Sedgwick is exceptional and wholly believable as gritty, tough-as-nails Delia. Both Posey and Balk are well cast as their respective characters, with Poseys vignette infusing some humor into the trilogy despite its serious overtones, and Balk bringing an indepth sensitivity to Paula. The film also stars David Warshofsky, Tim Guinee, Rob Leibman, and Wallace Shawn and is narrated by John Ventimiglia. PERSONAL VELOCITY is written and directed by Rebecca Miller, daughter of famed playwright Arthur Miller. [More]
Starring: Fairuza Balk, Parker Posey, Kyra Sedgwick, John Ventimiglia
Starring: Fairuza Balk, Parker Posey, Kyra Sedgwick, John Ventimiglia, David Warshofsky, Nick Cubbler, Nicole Murphy, Brian Tarantina, Laura Fanelli, Mara Hobel
Director: Rebecca Miller
Director: Rebecca Miller
Screenwriter: Rebecca Miller
Producer: Lemore Syvan, Gary Winick, Alexis Alexanian, Jonathan Sehring, Caroline Kaplan
Composer: Michael Rohatyn
Studio: MGM/UA
Reviews for Personal Velocity
The three main subjects of Personal Velocity prove so vivid and haunting, they leave you wondering why other aspects of the movie don't rise to their level.
[Miller is] too interested in who her women are and what they might become to worry about what they should be.
In a way, it plays like a dated feminist tract, one of those works that wants to show women making tough decisions and being emotionally resilient, but is at root about them being screwed over by men.
A movie that at its best doesn't just make the most out of its characters' flaws but insists on the virtue of imperfection.
Expands the limits of what a film can be, taking us into the lives of women to whom we might not give a second look if we passed them on the street.
This hammer-home-the-message female empowerment triptych takes bite-sized epiphanies and blows them up into thirty-minute Sundance Channel confections.
Dares to look conventional Hollywood wisdom in the eye and refuses to blink
These tales of women slipping out of control -- plucked from director Rebecca Miller's own book of the same name--are delivered in slow, touching and raw ways that'll leave you caring for all involved.
Personal Velocity has a no-frills docu-Dogma plainness, yet Miller lingers on invisible, nearly psychic nuances, leaping into digressions of memory and desire. She boxes these women's souls right open for us.
These mini-dramas about women trying to find a way into the future point out how difficult it is for people to accept the generosity and kindness of others.
Even when the movie is over, the psychological physics of Personal Velocity will remain in your head.
All three actresses are simply dazzling, particularly Balk, who's finally been given a part worthy of her considerable talents.
Personal Velocity ought to be exploring these women's inner lives, but it never moves beyond their surfaces.
Too often, the grainy digital video format deters from the strong performances.
Nothing really happens besides self-introspection and escape, which can be interesting, but here isn't.
...creates a visceral sense of its characters' lives and conflicted emotions that carries it far above...what could have been a melodramatic, Lifetime Channel-style anthology.
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