3 Needles (2006)

35% of critics liked it
(37 reviews)
66% of users liked it
(2,868 ratings)

Three stories, which offer differing perspectives on the AIDS pandemic, are featured in this anthology-drama. Sister Clara (Chloë Sevigny) is a young nun who is working with two, more experienced, missionaries (Olympia Dukakis and Sandra Oh) in a village along the African coast. Sister Clara finds… More Three stories, which offer differing perspectives on the AIDS pandemic, are featured in this anthology-drama. Sister Clara (Chloë Sevigny) is a young nun who is working with two, more experienced, missionaries (Olympia Dukakis and Sandra Oh) in a village along the African coast. Sister Clara finds herself struggling against ignorance and misinformation among the natives, but discovers she can only accomplish so much through traditional means and is forced to make a great personal sacrifice for the greater good. Denny (Shawn Ashmore) lives in Montreal and makes his living acting in pornographic movies -- a career he's kept hidden from his mother (Stockard Channing), who depends on Denny for financial support. Like most of his colleagues, Denny must present current HIV tests to producers in order to keep working. But unlike most of his fellow porn actors, Denny is actually carrying the AIDS virus, and presents fraudulent test paperwork in order to keep working. And Jin Ping (Lucy Liu) collects blood donations from villagers in mainland China, but while she claims that the blood will be used in government hospitals, Jin Ping is actually in cahoots with illegal private doctors, and she fails to use proper methods for safe blood collection. When Tong Sam (Tanabadee Chokpikultong) loses nearly all of his friends, family, and villagers to AIDS, he takes it upon himself to do something about Jin Ping and her reckless actions. Three Needles received its North American premier at the Toronto Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

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Rating, Runtime: Unrated, 2 hr. 7 min.
Directed By: Thom Fitzgerald
Genres: Drama

In Theaters: Dec 1, 2006 Wide
On DVD: Apr 3, 2007
Studio: Bigfoot Entertainment

Critic Reviews

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.
Jack Mathews, New York Daily News
Only the African story feels complete, while the Chinese story is gloomily hopeless and the Montreal story is just a bad idea. 3 Needles is not about AIDS; it's about the exploitation of it.
Teresa Budasi, Chicago Sun-Times
Broad in scope and at times visually stunning, [director Thom] Fitzgerald's project is ambitious but lacks cohesion.
Wesley Morris, Boston Globe
It's hard to know what exactly the movie means with a lot of the choices it makes, even if, ultimately, it means well.
Kevin Thomas, Los Angeles Times
Though not as coherent as it might be, 3 Needles, with its stunning cinematography by Thomas M. Harting, is never less than engaging and suggests powerfully the myriad reasons why AIDS, after a quarter of a century, remains so difficult to combat.
Stephen Holden, New York Times
Had it taken a more hard-headed approach, 3 Needles might have been to the AIDS epidemic what Traffic was to the drug trade.
David Cornelius, DVDTalk.com
As a movie with an important message, 3 Needles is an idiotic waste of time.
Don Willmott, Filmcritic.com
great performances and the heartbreaking dilemmas
Harvey S. Karten, Compuserve
A marginally involving dramatization of how peopledeal with AIDS in 3 separate cultures
Cynthia Fuchs, PopMatters
Making serious points about serious issues, the film underscores repeatedly the need for personal and official vigilance concerning "the virus,"
Robin Clifford, Reeling Reviews
3 Needles is a case of diminishing returns with the first story of blood running in China the best and the last, set in Africa, the least compelling.
Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat, Spirituality and Practice
Three riveting dramas about the AIDS crisis set in South Africa, China, and Canada that open our eyes and our hearts to victims of this dread disease.
Noel Murray, AV Club
The situations are contrived, the ironies are cheap, and the dialogue is overly blunt.
Ken Fox, TV Guide's Movie Guide
Demonstrates that the transmission of HIV has become an uncontrollable global pandemic that feeds on poverty and recognizes no sexual, national or religious borders.
Jim Hemphill, Reel.com
3 Needles is difficult to take at times, but it ultimately rewards those viewers willing to meet its challenges.
Evan Henerson, Los Angeles Daily News
3 Needles, Thom Fitzgerald's globe-spanning investigation of the effects of AIDS, may ultimately be a call to unity, but there's an extreme amount of despair and misery before we get to hear that trumpet blare.
Maria Garcia, Film Journal International
Nothing is as irritating as watching a film which is little more than an exercise of ego; worse is watching one that is about as discrete in its purpose as a missionary in Africa.
Jeffrey M. Anderson, Combustible Celluloid
It's gorgeously filmed, but its character logic very rarely makes any sense.

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Walter M

[font=Century Gothic]A few years previously, writer-director Thom Fitzgerald made a film, "The Event," about a man dying of AIDS in New York City. With his latest film, "3 Needles," he brings a global perspective to the edidemic in three segments:[/font]… More
[font=Century Gothic]A few years previously, writer-director Thom Fitzgerald made a film, "The Event," about a man dying of AIDS in New York City. With his latest film, "3 Needles," he brings a global perspective to the edidemic in three segments:[/font] [font=Century Gothic][/font] [font=Century Gothic]"The Fortitude of the Buddha" - In southern China, Jin(Lucy Liu), a very pregnant blood smuggler, sets up a blood donation unit in a village to pay locals $5 apiece for their blood. A poor farmer, Tong Sam(Tanabadee Chokpikultong), is too sick to give but he volunteers his 11-year old daughter, Qi(Yotaka Cheukaew), instead.[/font] [font=Century Gothic][/font] [font=Century Gothic]"The Passion of the Christ" - In Montreal, a porn star, Denys(Shawn Ashmore), is faking his HIV blood tests with his invalid father's(Aubert Pallascio) blood. Eventually his ruse is discovered.[/font] [font=Century Gothic][/font] [font=Century Gothic]"The Innocence of the Pagans" - In Africa, three nuns(Olympia Dukakis, Sandra Oh and Chloe Sevigny) arrive not to care for the large amount people suffering from AIDS, but to proselytize.(Thus, explaining why missionaries are some of my least favorite people.)[/font] [font=Century Gothic][/font] [font=Century Gothic]"3 Needles" is an ambitious movie that is occasionally powerful and beautiful. Through an understated style with little dialogue, the movie tells three stories that do a good job of showing how AIDS can flourish through self-interest and exploitation but also a way of fighting it with activists united on a global scale. In the end, the people of the world need to communicate better with each other to improve the world we live in.[/font]