Personal Velocity

• Released: July 10 2003
• Cast: Kyra Sedgwick, Parker Posey, Fairuza Balk
• Director: Rebecca Miller
• Genre: Drama
• Rated: MA 15+ (Adult Themes, Medium Level Sex Scene).
• Running Time: 90 Minutes
• Awards: Winner Grand Jury Prize Best Dramatic Feature, Dramatic Cinematography Sundance 2002.

Synopsis:
Based on Rebecca Miller's book of short stories, "Personal Velocity" tells the affecting stories of three American women struggling to make sense of the lives they've found themselves living. Delia (Sedgwick) is a young mother stuck in an abusive relationship with her husband of twelve years. One night after he brutally beats her, Delia finally attempts to reclaim some of the power she's completely lost. Greta (Posey) is a cookbook editor at a crossroads in life, "rotten with ambition" and semi-struggling with issues of fidelity to her kind but unexciting husband. And Paula (Balk) is thrust into crisis after having a near-death experience. Driving to her mother's house in upstate New York, she picks up a hitchhiker, a badly beaten young boy who helps her discover a new sense of spirit. As each story unfolds, each woman finds herself forced to make a decision - a decision that will change her life forever.


My Verdict:
Kyra Sedgwick is powerful as Delia, in the first act of the movie. She plays a battered wife who has decided to leave her abusive husband and take her three children with her. She is on a fast train to nowhere and knows it, yet can't stop. Kyra gave Delia a hard edge with just a hint of a softer inside.

Parker Posey is Greta, the editor with the husband she knows will never leave her. She is itching to find an excuse to branch out of her hum-drum life but can't quite take the leap. Slowly she realises that she's the only one who can make that decision. Parker enables us to see the other side of Greta, the side that only Great knows.

Fairuza Balk plays a restrained Paula. Pregnant, Paula finds herself running away again in no particular direction. She had run away from home 2 years earlier and is now on the run again. She escapes death by minutes and decides that must be the catalyst for a change in her future. Fairuza gives Paula the feeling of a lost puppy, playing happily then realising that somehow she is lost.Overall, Personal Velocity is somewhat disappointing. The movie has a grainy, hard-edge feel to it via the use of hand-held digital video, which makes us feel closer to the characters. The three vignettes, which each last 30 minutes, are barely enough time for the development of the characters. Just as we begin to learn and appreciate each character via the narrator (Jon Ventimiglia), their story is cut and we move on to the next character. Perhaps if the three women were connected in some way that may have helped, but there is only a very minor connection which came as a surprise. They have each reached a crisis point in their lives and make a radical decision that changes the direction of their lives. Maybe that's the point - they did make a choice to change direction where many would have continued mindlessly on. It's just a pity that we didn't get to share in their new lives.


- Christina Bruce