Get us in your inbox

3 Backyards

  • Film
  • 3 out of 5 stars
3backyardsREV
Advertising

Time Out says

3 out of 5 stars

A businessman (Koteas) wanders through an unfamiliar part of town after his flight is postponed, reluctant to go home and face his marital woes. A little girl (Resheff) borrows and loses a bracelet intended to be a birthday present for her mother. A housewife (Falco) gives her actress neighbor (Davidtz) a ride to the ferry but is rebuffed when she invites the obviously distraught celebrity to confide in her.

Never mind the actual backyard foliage shown in dreamy, dewey close-ups; it's the private, unguarded spaces among a trio of unrelated characters in a Long Island town that take center stage in Eric Mendelsohn's ensemble drama. The writer-director's follow-up to Judy Berlin (2000) tries to show how small breaks from suburban routines end up causing seismic changes in lives otherwise unexamined, juxtaposing brief encounters and semi-epiphanies with a delicacy that's alternately impressive and irritating; calling these back-and-forth koans stories may be too forceful. So what's up with the gratuitously showy visual style and aggressive, flute-heavy score that runs rampant over the modest narrative developments? Only Falco gets beyond being merely a symbol for suburban angst, thanks to her fiercely open, not terribly sympathetic turn as a woman taking liberties under the illusion of offering comfort.

See more in Film

Written by Alison Willmore
Advertising
You may also like
You may also like

The best things in life are free.

Get our free newsletter – it’s great.

Loading animation
Déjà vu! We already have this email. Try another?

🙌 Awesome, you're subscribed!

Thanks for subscribing! Look out for your first newsletter in your inbox soon!