3 Needles

2005

2 hr. 5 min.

Drama

List

36%

39 Reviews

Tomatometer

68%

2,500+ Ratings

Audience Score

In this triptych portrait of the global AIDS crisis, Jing Pin (Lucy Liu), an expectant mother living in the Chinese countryside, takes blood donations with tainted needles and sells what she's collected on the black market. Meanwhile, at a mission in Africa, three nuns struggle to secure medical care for farmworkers dying of AIDS. And in Montreal, Denys (Shawn Ashmore), an HIV-positive actor, steals his father's blood to fake test results and maintain his career in the porn industry.

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Critics Consensus

In getting its message about the AIDS epidemic across, the film unfortunately sacrifices story and character.

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Audience Member

I thought all 3 stories were done excellently. Stockard Channing broke my heart in her portrayal of the Mother who gave her all. I think Olympia Dukakis is one of the best, although not a personal favorite role.

Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars

02/07/23

Full Review

Audience Member

Very intelligent. Three stories with one theme. Sad and amazing.

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

02/11/23

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Audience Member

My review back in 2007: Although this movie is filled with good actors, it falls very short of a captivating, inspiring, or intelligent story on the AIDS crisis. I was not fan's of any of these actors or the director, but due to the story subject I was willing to give it a try. The best story was the intial full story ripped from the headlines about AIDS being passed onto innocent Chinese rural citizens. What I was surprised at was that they do not touch on the cover up. After an initial sad, but very truthful story the movie goes quickly downhill from there. The second story is an idiotic and selfish story, that puts in a twist, but doesn't pay off and only is weird. I felt no sympathy for any of the characters in that second story. The third story show's the writer and director's total misunderstanding of Catholic theology, nuns, and their views. Then essentially makes a saint out of a Nun who pimps herself out to a rich western business man for the sake of the dying AID's children to make her out as some saint. It ends up being a sad and idiotic moral to a very real crisis in Africa. This story is not like Babel other than being a losely connected story in various countries. Babel shockingly showed human connection through pain, but this story instead shows nothing of the sort. Instead, it uses a very real crises as a backdrop to some interesting story telling and outright mischaracterization of a faith and promotion of some Unitarian feel good afterschool hogwash.

Rated 2 out of 5 stars

01/13/23

Full Review

Audience Member

A very different look at the AIDS epidemic and how people deal with it in different circumstances. The way the vignettes are depicted is a bit convoluted, but the movie as a whole makes a powerful statement on the human condition nonetheless.

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

02/08/23

Full Review

Audience Member

Very good film. I truly recommended it to everyone. Something new, something unusual.

Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars

01/26/23

Full Review

Audience Member

Each of the stories is very harrowing in its own way, but at the end of each there is also hope. The realism of each vignette is harsh and grueling. But without films like this, we would forget the human struggles each of us has to face.

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

01/17/23

Full Review

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Thom Fitzgerald

Director

Shawn Ashmore

Denys

Stockard Channing

Olive Cowie

Tanabadee Chokpikultong

Tong Sam

Olympia Dukakis

Hilde the Missionary Nun

Lucy Liu

Jin Ping

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V.A. Musetto

New York Post

Rated: 1/4

Aug 22, 2007

Full Review

Noel Murray

AV Club

The situations are contrived, the ironies are cheap, and the dialogue is overly blunt.

Rated: D+

Dec 2, 2006

Full Review

G. Allen Johnson

San Francisco Chronicle

If nothing else, [director Thom] Fitzgerald has demonstrated how huge a challenge the AIDS epidemic is on a worldwide scale, and how it will take a concerted, intelligent effort to solve it. It'll take a lot more than throwing money around.

Rated: 2.5/4

Dec 1, 2006

Full Review

David Lamble

Bay Area Reporter

Thom Fitzgerald has taken a giant stride forward in this three-part/three-country parable of the insidious effect of the AIDS virus...

May 12, 2020

Full Review

David Cornelius

DVDTalk.com

As a movie with an important message, 3 Needles is an idiotic waste of time.

Rated: 1/5

May 27, 2007

Full Review

Don Willmott

Filmcritic.com

great performances and the heartbreaking dilemmas

Rated: 3.5/5

Apr 17, 2007

Full Review

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Synopsis

In this triptych portrait of the global AIDS crisis, Jing Pin (Lucy Liu), an expectant mother living in the Chinese countryside, takes blood donations with tainted needles and sells what she's collected on the black market. Meanwhile, at a mission in Africa, three nuns struggle to secure medical care for farmworkers dying of AIDS. And in Montreal, Denys (Shawn Ashmore), an HIV-positive actor, steals his father's blood to fake test results and maintain his career in the porn industry.

Director: Thom Fitzgerald
Executive Producer: Michael Gleissner
Screenwriter: Thom Fitzgerald
Production Co: Emotion Pictures
Genre: Drama
Original Language: Afrikaans
Release Date (Streaming): Jan 9, 2017
Sound Mix: Dolby Digital

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