Konterr Brilliant and touching

ChicDragon It's a mild crowd pleaser for people who are exhausted by blockbusters.

Brendon Jones It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.

Brennan Camacho Mostly, the movie is committed to the value of a good time.

MartinHafer After about half an hour, I was almost ready to turn off the DVD because it seemed pretty boring and pointless. However, I stuck with it and was very amply rewarded as the movie came together to form a coherent whole. Up until about 2/3 the way through the movie, actually, how these three stories interrelated was completely uncertain--other than the fact the three main characters lived near each other. It was only later that the theme of loss and eventual redemption came to light. Three women all coming to terms with loss in their lives, then working through the crisis and ultimately making major decisions in their lives--and coincidentally meeting at the same table at the airport in the end.Sophia Loren plays, naturally, an older lady. Suddenly, she begins compulsively creating beautiful pictures but hides them from everyone. The reason for this is rather mystical but interesting. These pictures are a way for her coming to terms with a daughter she once gave up for adoption. While it was the best thing at the time, she is racked with guilt and failure over this.Mira Sorvino plays a photo journalist whose father is also a well-respected photo journalist (Klaus Maria Brandaur). He sees her as a "chip off the old block" after one of her photos makes the cover of Time Magazine. But, for some inexplicable reason she can't remember having taken the picture! Eventually, you figure out why and she is suddenly racked with guilt--should she photograph misery or do something to make a real difference is her dilemma.Deborah Kara Unger is an exceptionally talented cellist who has left her husband and young daughter. At the same time, her father (Malcolm McDowell--in a very restrained role) is released from prison after serving over 20 years for murdering Unger's mother. She finds she can't get on with her life and hovers between wanting to kill her dad, or herself or just allow her life to spin out of control--regardless, she is so racked with conflicting feelings she cannot function.How all three of these women resolve these dilemmas and deal with their regrets make this a great film. By the way, be sure to have some tissues nearby--you'll probably need them.

toniwebb3 Rented it because I'm a Sophia Loren fan. It's obvious that she got the illustrious cast to sign on so her son would have something to do. He is a bad writer and even worse director. No energy at all in the film, lots of dead space, trite camera angles; the women in the film are colorless, downtrodden, and hopeless. This portrayal of women is surprising since Eduoardo Ponti's mother is the vivacious Sophia Loren. The camera angles are especially unflattering to her. What's up with that? This film is a complete waste of talent considering the big stars in the film. Even after the women make life-altering changes, they still look weepy and pathetic. The script has every cliché in the book.

norcekri I heartily recommend that you watch this movie for the acting, not the plot. Briefly, this is a half-baked concept, sloppily written around the edges, but the handful of actors in the high-profile roles make it worth renting -- as long as you're not expecting more. The main characters are excellent in their roles, with a supporting cast deserving of award nominations. Sophia Loren does more with few words than most of our cinema stars; the rest of the cast match her well. The supporting actors with not quite too many words walk the fine line between doing too much and too little, and make each arc come alive for the woman in the middle.But give up on the plot. The three arcs do not share the common thread stated in the promotional materials. The little girl who appears to each is not a herald of emotional transition; rather, she is Ponti's (writer/director) admission that the preceding scene, supposedly emotional, has a weak ending, just as with the movie's ending (which is more like a cartoon ending than a high-profile movie). The girl is a pop-up window with a tiny banner reading "missing climax".I don't insist on having a cheesy Hollywood ending, where all the loose ends are tied up and the main characters are happy. "Between Strangers" simply fails to tie the three stories together. They are not "intertwined". They're paced similarly, but hardly parallel. When the movie finishes at a minor cadence point for each, there's no real feeling of resolution or accomplishment; any of the three could easily return to the previous life. The loose ends left behind are typical for real life -- in fact, none of the three seems to feel any need to clean up any loose ends. They all come off as self-centered, thoughtless people in this respect. (To be honest, several of their loose ends deserve no more.) Still, the plots start in the middle, end at a minor cadence, and don't really develop cleanly on the way. Various minor characters drift in and out, apparently important to the central woman, but the writer never informs us of what they're doing in her life, why she pays so much attention to them.

George Parker "Between Strangers" tells of three women with something in common. They are all laconic, slothlike zombies moving from scene to scene as though they bear the weight of the world on their shoulders. Though this film offers a good cast and execution, it is little more than a trio of short subjects with an unfortunately bland and overly ponderous result lacking the only reason to make one film from three stories; synergism. (C+)