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3 Needles, 2005

3 Needles

Afrikaans, Mandarin, Xhosa, French, English

Canada

Rating:6.5
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Profile of 3 Needles

3 Needles can be described as contemplative, touching, and emotional. The plot revolves around a plague, terminal illness, and themes of life is a bitch. The main genres are drama and foreign. In terms of style, 3 Needles is episodic and includes a voice over. In approach, it is serious and realistic. The storytelling is slow paced. 3 Needles is located in South Africa, China, and Canada. It takes place in contemporary times.

Summary of 3 Needles

Canadian writer-director Thom Fitzgerald's sweeping 3 NEEDLES journeys across several continents to show just how widespread HIV/AIDS has become in our modern world. Three distinct stories are loosely linked by the narration of Olympia Dukakis, whose character appears in the film's final sequence. In the first, Lucy Liu is a pregnant Chinese woman who makes her living as a blood smuggler. Things turn sour when several donors begin to get sick and die. The second story, set in Montreal, follows a porn actor (Shawn Ashmore) who fakes his blood tests in order to keep working in the industry. But when his scheme is exposed, he is shamed and humiliated. His heartbroken mother (Stockard Channing) takes out an insurance policy and embarks on a darkly comic mission to contract the HIV virus as well. South Africa is the setting for the final tale, where three nuns (Chloe Sevigny, Sandra Oh, and Dukakis) have arrived to help out in the community. But in order to get a local plantation owner to assist one of her patients, Sevigny's character must make the most shameful sacrifice of all.

3 NEEDLES is an ambitious drama featuring beautiful cinematography by Tom Harting. Fitzgerald boldly eschews a more traditional tonal approach by combining seemingly disparate elements of black comedy, graphic content, and straight drama. The result is a broad, expansive commentary on a genuinely tragic situation that has no end in sight.

Details

Language: Afrikaans, Mandarin, Xhosa, French, English
Country: Canada
Release date: 2 June 2006
Runtime: 127 min

Cast and Crew

Shawn Ashmore as Denys, the Porn Actor in 3 Needles
Shawn Ashmore

as Denys, the Porn Actor

Lucy Liu as Jin Ping, the Blood Smuggler in 3 Needles
Lucy Liu

as Jin Ping, the Blood Smuggler

Stockard Channing as Olive Cowie, the Porn Actor's Mother in 3 Needles
Stockard Channing

as Olive Cowie, the Porn Actor's Mother

Olympia Dukakis as Hilde the Missionary Nun in 3 Needles
Olympia Dukakis

as Hilde the Missionary Nun

Photos

3 Needles (2005)
3 Needles (2005)

Clips

3 Needles
3 Needles: Trailer

Critics Reviews

Variety
3 Needles is a great discussion tool for World AIDS Awareness Day that never achieves coherent shape as a three-paneled drama.
Chicago Tribune
Writer-director Thom Fitzgerald's ambitious but hopelessly inchoate AIDS drama is actually three separate, sequentially-told stories.
Likely to see
Not for me

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