3 Women

19771977
PGPG
2h 4m

7.8/10

Drama Mystery Thriller

Two roommates/physical therapists, one a vain woman and the other a mysterious teenager, share a bizarre relationship.Two roommates/physical therapists, one a vain woman and the other a mysterious teenager, share a bizarre relationship.Two roommates/physical therapists, one a vain woman and the other a mysterious teenager, share a bizarre relationship.

7.8/10

15K

Director
- Robert Altman
Writers
- Robert Altman
- Patricia Resnick(uncredited)
Stars

Top credits

See production, box office & company info

See more at IMDbPro

Nominated for 1 BAFTA Film Award
- 3 wins & 5 nominations total

Videos1

Trailer 1:36

3 Women

Sissy Spacek and Shelley Duvall in 3 Women (1977)

Pinky is an awkward adolescent who starts work at a spa in the California desert. She becomes overly attached to fellow spa attendant, Millie when she becomes Millie's room-mate. Millie is a lonely outcast who desperately tries to win attention with constant up-beat chatter. They hang out at a bar owned by a strange pregnant artist and her has-been cowboy husband. After two emotional crises, the three women steal and trade personalities until they settle into a new family unit that seems to give each woman what she was searching for. —danetta cox cordova

female protagonist surrealism identity swapping social satire identity 72 more

Taglines
- 1 woman became 2/2 women became 3/3 women became 1
Genres
Certificate
- PG
Parents guide

Trivia
Shelley Duvall's skirt getting stuck in the car door was initially accidental. Robert Altman found it amusing and asked her to intentionally do it throughout the rest of the filming.

Quotes
Dr. Maas: No. I do not think this was a simple mistake. The chances of her making up a Social Security number exactly the same as yours are very slim.
Ms. Bunweil: She maliciously gave me your number when she filled out her W-4.
Millie Lammoreaux: How could she have? I didn't even know her then.
Ms. Bunweil: Don't get smart with me, Lammoreaux. You can't fool me. She told me she couldn't remember her number and was gonna write home for it, and, like a fool, I believed her.
Millie Lammoreaux: So maybe she forgot to do it and just gave you mine instead. She didn't mean anything bad by it. I don't know what makes it such a big deal. She's just a little kid.
Dr. Maas: I'll tell you what makes it such a big deal. I do not want any discrepancies in these records. I do not want government people coming in here going through these books. I think Rose did this on purpose.
Ms. Bunweil: I didn't trust her from the very minute I first laid eyes on her.
Millie Lammoreaux: She never did anything wrong on purpose. She's just scared of you, that's all. Then she almost died, and nobody even cared around here. You're the bad ones, not Pinky. All you care about's your time clock, your money and your dumb books. Well, you don't have to worry about any Social Security numbers anymore, because I quit. It's a horrible job. And we don't need it. Neither of us.

Connections
Featured in Sneak Previews: Take 2: Great Performances that Oscar Ignored (1980)

Top review

Psychological Study of Human Stability

We are all on the brink. Many of us have endearing qualities that are lacking in others and vice versa. Do we question ourselves or do we change drastically? Can we become better people or are we doomed with our very own dismal personality traits? These are the questions that the film, 3 Women, examines.

I saw this film as a 14 year old boy with no preconceptions. It made me feel like there were imposter's as well as identity thieves among us all. I even became suspicious of people who I considered to be my allies! A truly, classic piece of cinema paranoia (in the tradition of Polanski's The Tenant). Except in this case, there is no illusion. Just one ,blatant, slap in the face after another. When you watch this film, it will literally shed it's skin and reveal something that is spookily real and very threatening, without all the supernatural riff-raff and far-fetched plot. This is a film about REAL characters and REAL development. The ending can be summed up by the scene which precedes it, in which the three women are brought together by a rather tragic incident, as this breathes new "life" into their bleak, sometimes dusty environments. "One woman became two..Two became three...3 Women became One."

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