Craig Richard Nelson, Janice Rule, John Cromwell

Pinky, an eccentric and shy woman gets a job as an attendant at a spa. There she befriends her co-worker, Millie. Soon the two women become roommates. Pinky's attachement to Millie grows into an obsse...( read more  read more... )sion and she begins imitating her personality and appearance. Eventually Pinky discovers Millie with a man; the husband of a local woman. The new information pushes Pinky to the edge, creating a series of strange confrontations and role reversals.

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86% liked it

5,138 ratings

Critics

95% liked it

19 critics

PG, 2 hrs. 4 min.

Directed by: Robert Altman

Release Date: April 3, 1977

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DVD Release Date: April 20, 2004

Stats: 284 reviews

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Flixster Reviews (284)


  • March 8, 2008
    I may be wrong, but I always imagine "3 Women" turning off a portion of Altman aficionados, while at the same time enchanting some regular detractors of his work. A complete departure from his typical freewheeling, ensemble style of filmmaking, it has a haunting, dreamlike qualit...( read more)y unlike anything else I've seen. It's a tough one to describe, but the titular women are: a socially invisible chatterbox (Shelley Duvall), her adoring, childlike protege (Sissy Spacek), and a near mute artist (Janice Rule), pregnant by Duvall and Spacek's lecherous, philandering landlord. Over the course of the film, a pair of cataclysmic events cause the women to twice exchange identities. Without giving too much away, the first such transfer is straightforward enough, prompted by temporary amnesia, but the second is more abstract and disturbing, motivated by guilt and loss. If all this sounds a little heavy-going, "3 Women" is often very funny, at the expense of Duvall's would-be domestic goddess and Spacek's wide-eyed innocent. Shelley Duvall is outstanding and Sissy Spacek is equally wonderful, but the film owes much of its haunting atmosphere to Janice Rule; the fact that she says very little is somehow more mysterious than if she were to say nothing at all.
  • October 15, 2009
    This is one of the weirdest movies I have ever seen that made sense. It's an offbeat way to recap the old jocks versus nerds conflict, with crazy people and lesbians running amok in the desert, drunk and heavily armed. Seriously, it's a my new favorite gal "buddy" film.
  • August 8, 2009
    THIS HAS TO BE THE MOST BIZARRE PIECE OF WORK THAT I'VE EVER SEEN IN MY LIFE(LOL),PLUS I SAW IT WHEN I WAS A KID SO THAT MADE IT EXTRA WEIRD,I MEAN THIS THING IS OFF THE HOOK WEIRD(LOL)...its a real mind fu**...
  • November 14, 2008
    My first impression was a "a poor man's Persona"...

    I liked Willie's paintings....

    ...the performances of Duval and Spacek are excellent

    and I normally I like films like this...

    but the end (the first one?) seemed forced....

    ... sure it's from a dream, but it ...( read more)felt a little like one of those "I'm naked and late for school" dreams that really aren't worth mentioning to anyone later, or writing down. The "birth"? Well, that was the moment, this "jumped the shark" for me.

    The music, while effective at first, became monotonous after the constant tension it evokes, never materializes. It became a kind of muzak for Seriousness.

    I appreciated it at moments, and I agree with whoever said this could be in a film festival of "Feminine Identity Fusion movies, from Vertigo to Mulholland Dr.". But at such a festival also back to back with "Persona" and "Cries And Whispers", I don't think this would stand up very well.

    Like "Quintet" this is Robert Altman at some of his most experimental and interesting, both visually and conceptually, but these slipstream and sci-fi forms might just not be his strong suit.


    More swimming pools should have artwork.
  • October 17, 2008
    Water, water everywhere... Another 1970s masterpiece from director Robert Altman. A haunting score accompanies this enigmatic story of fluid identity, displacement, and mythic concepts of womanhood. Sissy Spacek and Shelley Duvall are perfectly cast as women who continually mirro...( read more)r one another as they share a job and an apartment. Reminiscent of both Bergman and Polanski--Bergman for its thorough deconstruction of personality and measured pace; Polanski for its chilling dreamlike tone and that I'm not sure if this is a work of overt misogyny or heroic feminism. Mmm-boy, that's good irony!
  • September 23, 2008
    The whole movie looks like a dream.
  • July 25, 2008
    Interesting Altman, atmospheric, very dream-like. Not what I expected.
  • July 17, 2008
    Women switch personalities, and finally become one?!!
    Didn't like it, or maybe wasn't in the right mood for it.
  • July 8, 2008
    Not quite the earnest female drama I was hoping to find, a little bizarre and one too many symbolisms, but still a profound study on womanhood, at times funny and sweet, all without hitting its message too much on our heads. Sissy Spacek was never better and Shelley Duvall's the ...( read more)epithome of pathetic adorability... or adorable patheticity?
  • June 9, 2008
    Rare, interesting, offbeat, and slightly overrated...

Critic Reviews


May 3, 2005
Nick Schager, Lessons of Darkness

An incisive portrait of psychological alienation. full review

March 5, 2005
Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times

I have seen it many times, been through it twice in shot-by-shot analysis, and yet it always seems to be happening as I watch it. Recurring dreams are like that. full review

View more 3 Women reviews at RottenTomatoes.com

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