Millie Lammoreaux (Shelley Duvall) is a lonely chatterbox and clock-puncher at a geriatric spa located in the desert boondocks of California. She is asked to train a very young and new girl by the name of Pinky Rose (Sissy Spacek). While both Millie's co-workers and neighbors shun Millie, Pinky seems to idolize her and quickly snatches up the opportunity to be Millie's roommate in a one-bedroom furnished apartment. As the duo share in more activities, Millie takes Pinky to an off-road bar owned by a pregnant artist, Willie Hart (Janice Rule) and her boozing, lecherous husband, Edgar Hart (Robert Fortier). Although the three women are at different stages of their life, their destinies are meant to intertwine in a strange dance that flits between the mysterious and the macabre before finding a poetic resolution.
Along the way there are plenty of detours, including one where we find how Pinky (whose real name was Mildred) is perfectly capable of smoking, flirting, stealing cars, and shooting guns. There is also one very long dream sequence where the art of duality gets fully expressed. To the casual eye, it may come across as rather willy-nilly, or (to be more literal) very Willie-Millie with a lot of Mildred in-between. But, just as an "M" mirrors a "W," this film is full of reflections and refractions where the transference of age and identity swim hand-in-hand, and whether the swimming pools are full of old people, murals, or just despondent youth, they are all rich with amniotic meaning. Again, the wonderful thing about 3 Women is that, while the armchair analyst in us all is welcome to have a field day dissecting every nuance (and there are many), we can also unleash our lazy id and simply enjoy an interesting story steeped with great atmosphere motored through by actors in peak form. In one pivotal scene Duvall gives off such a contagious moment of absolute terror that one can't help but think Stanley Kubrick let this influence his casting call for her as the terrorized wife in The Shining (1980).
The Criterion dvd of 3 Women presents the film in its original 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen ratio in Dolby Digital 2.0 mono. Extras include a running commentary track by director Robert Altman, a Stills Gallery of rare production and publicity photos, the original theatrical trailer, a shorter theatrical teaser trailer that only uses freeze-frames and narration to arresting effect (proving, once again, how less can be more), two television spots, and liner notes essay by Christian Science Monitor writer David Sterrit.
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by Pablo Kjolseth
