‘3’ looks at a strained relationship from multiple perspectives

Director Tom Tykwer, of Run Lola Run fame, has put together a rather dull romance for his latest feature. 3 tries to say something about the human condition and the difference between yearning and comfort, but everything gets muddled amid a plot and characters that never feel real or true.

Hanna (Sophia Rois), Simon (Sebastian Schipper) and Adam (Devid Striesow) all need something more in life, but what drives them and their actions is never fully revealed. We know they are marginally happy with their current allotment. Hanna and Simon have been together for 20 years, and they’ve begun talks of finally getting married and maybe having some children. Adam is separated from his wife, but has a successful academic career and enjoys football on the weekends.

These three lost souls are brought together out of a desire to go beyond the mundaneness of their everyday lives. At various times throughout the two-hour film, Hanna and Adam strike up a relationship, as does Simon and Adam. Much like Pier Paolo Pasolini’s Teorema, Adam becomes this unstoppable force, attracted to the possibilities of disrupting this couple’s reserved happiness (although he doesn’t know they are a couple).

The gaping hole in the story is that Adam, despite some nicely layered acting from Striesow, is never developed as a character. His motivations are unclear, and he simply passes from one scene to the next as if he’s detached from his own actions. As Hanna and Simon deal with severe issues of intimacy and adultery, Adam plays football on Sunday, takes other lovers to bed and smiles his way out of most scenarios. A little more subtext to this pivotal character might have saved 3 from feeling so experimental and unfinished, as if Tykwer is unable to make good on his original intentions.

The acting is uniformly excellent, with Rois the best of the trio. She has this way of showing so much emotion on her expressive face. Whether it’s the realization that all will never be the same again, or her own self-denial on what the relationship with Adam truly means, the actress is able to carve a perpetually interesting character out of Hanna.

Schipper is quite good as Simon, a man who has reached a somewhat groundbreaking crossroads in his life. With an attraction to Adam, and yet an undying love for Hanna, he finds himself pulled in one too many directions.

Although the plot would make for some farcical setups, Tykwer keeps everything serious. Even the inevitable revelation, when Hanna and Simon both find out about their respective affairs, is dealt with in a real, organic manner. The movie is not trying to present a tongue-in-cheek comedy about sensuality.

The inventiveness of Tykwer’s direction starts off strong (there’s even a brief animated sequence), but the director seems to lose steam as the plot progresses to its expected ending. What first starts as clever filmmaking putters out into a conventional romantic drama. 3 may have interesting things to say, but in its journey toward sophistication, it run outs of energy.

By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com

• 3

• In German with English subtitles

• 2011

• Written and directed by Tom Tykwer

• Starring Sophie Rois, Sebastian Schipper and David Striesow

• Running time: 119 minutes

• Not Rated

• Rating: