Third Person *** (2014, Liam Neeson, Mila Kunis, Adrien Brody, Olivia Wilde) – Movie Review

Liam Neeson stars as Pulitzer Prize-winning fiction author Michael who has holed himself up in a hotel suite in Paris to finish his latest book in this glossy and diverting 2014 romantic drama from talented writer-director Paul Haggis, Oscar winner for Crash (2004). Haggis cleverly and wittily intertwines three love stories involving couples in Rome, Paris and New York.

Neeson’s Michael has left his wife Elaine (Kim Basinger) and is having a stormy affair in Paris with ambitious young journalist Anna (Olivia Wilde), a dysfunctional wannabe author herself.

Adrien Brody also stars as Scott, a shady American businessman in Italy to steal designs, who goes to the Café American in Rome, where he meets beautiful Roma woman Monika (Moran Atias), about to be reunited with her young daughter.

And lastly, in New York, Mila Kunis stars as Julia, an ex-soap opera actress caught in a custody battle for her six-year-old daughter.

Neeson shows once again what a good actor he is when he’s not confined to simply acting tough action movies, even if this isn’t Haggis’s best work. It certainly plays like an upmarket soap opera, though there’s nothing really wrong with that. That’s entirely enjoyable, especially as played out by such talented and attractive actors as these.

This is by no means a great movie, or even a memorable one, but it is entirely entertaining enough in its escapist way for all its 137 minutes. You can feel the effort as Haggis continually to raise the movie’s game, but it remains resolutely posh soap.

James Franco, Maria Bello and Riccardo Scamarcio (as the Café American barman) also star.

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© Derek Winnert 2014 Movie Review

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