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      Personal Velocity: Three Portraits

      R Released Nov 22, 2002 1 hr. 25 min. Drama List
      69% 104 Reviews Tomatometer 61% 2,500+ Ratings Audience Score Based on Rebecca Miller's recently published book of short stories, "Personal Velocity" tells three tales of women as they escape their current situations. Segmented into three parts, Greta (Parker Posey), Delia (Kyra Sedgwick) and Paula (Fairuza Balk) have one thing in common, each struggle to flee from the men who confine their personal freedom. Read More Read Less Watch on Fandango at Home Premiered Apr 26 Buy Now

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      Personal Velocity: Three Portraits

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      Critics Consensus

      Uneven, but a keenly observed and well-acted film about three women's lives.

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      Audience Reviews

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      dave j Adapted from her book, who is also credited as director Rebecca Miller showcasing 3 stories unrelated with one another intertwined other than a car accident. Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 03/30/23 Full Review Ken R Rebecca Miller's second feature movie is just what you would expect to win awards at a Sundance festival (if you can take those ‘styles' you may be somehow ‘entertained') Others can expect to sit through very roughly sketched plotlines - in this case, it's three shallow stories about women that don't particularly link up well or offer any satisfactory resolutions. The photography by Ellen Kuras consists of shaky (cheap and trendy) video handheld shots, mostly taken with the zoom lens on extreme tight --producing a nauseating wobble cam-- with the operator attempting to frame the subject within a rocky, sea-sick making image. The crass, sensationalistic situations and course dialogue are mostly drawn from the perspective of modern, disenfranchised immature females - with some of the title characters preferring to live out female fantasies (even when in successful relationships of their own making), actions that predictably lead to utter chaos. All these women are quite unbelievably devoid of the ability to learn from any obvious life experiences or moral convictions. It's difficult to fully sympathise with these somewhat sordid characters or feel all that much empathy for their all too obvious and inevitable outcomes. Performances are OK with Michael Rohatyn supplying a cute minimalist main theme. Rebecca's Dad, Arthur Miller, may have been a notable and worthy writer but that's clearly not always guaranteed to transfer to the offspring. Strictly for undemanding viewers of the ‘type'- others will give up within the first 15 mins and be better off. Rated 2 out of 5 stars 04/22/20 Full Review Audience Member Not my cup of tea. I don't mind the short stories, but other that the fact the three women are having troubles in part due to their upbringing, the stories do not inter-relate at all. Rated 1.5 out of 5 stars 01/27/23 Full Review Audience Member This film is comprised of three portraits of women, one escaping from an abusive marriage, one considering adultery, and one who picks up a hitchhiker. Overly expository, these stories are undeveloped. The transition between short story and film is a difficult one, and Rebecca Miller clings to her prose with an obsessive compulsion that doesn't recognize the visual nature of her new medium. And the need to give backstory on all of her characters doesn't even work in prose. All three of the stories revolve around the theme of characters being stuck by their own identities and pasts. It's an interesting theme, but I don't see anything new in the way it's presented or the individualities of the characters, excepting the final story with Fairuza Balk. Overall, there is a difference between film and prose, and Miller doesn't adapt to that difference. Rated 1.5 out of 5 stars 02/26/23 Full Review Audience Member 3/1/13? My review for this film somehow disappeared, so I'll have to try again over a month later. The 3 stories don't tie together, which was very disappointing b/c I assumed they would. This was a big let down at the end. The stories in themselves are fairly interesting to watch, but each one just ends, leaving it feeling incomplete. The transitions between the stories is non-existent. One story abruptly ends, then the other begins. Obviously, this left me pretty frustrated. Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars 01/30/23 Full Review Audience Member Loved the direction and the way the stories were portrayed...very different insights into different lives...well enacted Rated 4 out of 5 stars 02/27/23 Full Review Read all reviews Post a rating

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      Critics Reviews

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      David Ansen Newsweek Miller is a witty and socially acute observer; the three portraits in "Personal Velocity" are told with both novelistic richness and brisk, confident economy. Mar 7, 2018 Full Review Barbara Ellen Times (UK) By the end of Personal Velocity, you want to invite all three female characters around for coffee to hear what happened next, and I can think of no higher praise for everyone involved. Jan 3, 2018 Full Review Richard Porton Chicago Reader This uneven triptych features flawed female heroines whose woes are attributable to unstable or bland male partners and simple bad luck. Sep 29, 2017 Full Review Betsy Bozdech DVDJournal.com Although each woman has only about half an hour of screen time, all three are more fully realized characters than any woman in a typical two-hour Hollywood blockbuster. Rated: 3.5/4 Nov 6, 2006 Full Review Film Threat Rated: 3.5/5 Dec 6, 2005 Full Review Tony Medley tonymedley.com Rated: 1/10 Oct 7, 2004 Full Review Read all reviews

      Movie Info

      Synopsis Based on Rebecca Miller's recently published book of short stories, "Personal Velocity" tells three tales of women as they escape their current situations. Segmented into three parts, Greta (Parker Posey), Delia (Kyra Sedgwick) and Paula (Fairuza Balk) have one thing in common, each struggle to flee from the men who confine their personal freedom.
      Director
      Rebecca Miller
      Executive Producer
      Jonathan Sehring, Caroline Kaplan, John Sloss
      Screenwriter
      Rebecca Miller
      Distributor
      IFC Films, United Artists
      Production Co
      IFC Productions
      Rating
      R (Some Strong Sexuality|Language|Brief Violence)
      Genre
      Drama
      Original Language
      English
      Release Date (Theaters)
      Nov 22, 2002, Wide
      Release Date (Streaming)
      Sep 16, 2008
      Box Office (Gross USA)
      $763.2K
      Sound Mix
      Surround
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