Three stories explore horrors of AIDS in 3 Needles

Catholic New Times, May 21, 2006 by Kevin Spurgaitis

3 Needles. Starring Lucy Liu, Chloe Sevigny. Written and directed by Thom Fitzgerald. (18A) 123 min.

Reminiscent of Steven Soderbergh's drug enforcement expose, Traffic, 3 Needles personalizes the HIV/AIDS pandemic with three highly dramatic accounts in the South African countryside, a Chinese village and in Montreal's downtown. In South Africa, a group of nuns boosted by the devout, yet rebellious novice Clara (Chloe Sevigny) arrive to save as many souls as possible. However, they quickly realize a help, different from churchy concerns, is needed.

Sevigny is credible as the young, Montreal nun, who is transplanted into southern Africa to baptize dying patients. Her idealistic character makes a decision to adopt a family orphaned by HIV/AIDS, by making a 'deal with the devil' in the form of the wealthy plantation owner, Mr. Hallyday.

In China, Jin Ping (Lucy Liu) sets up one of the first mobile blood collection services and inadvertently starts an epidemic that eventually affects her own health. Liu poignantly portrays the pregnant scam artist, who modestly pays villagers five dollars a piece for vials of their plasma, before infecting an unsuspecting hill tribe with the "mysterious disease."

Meanwhile, a second-rate film star named Denny (Shawn Ashmore) toils away in Montreal's pornography industry, in order to support his parents. Hiding his HIV/AIDS positive status from his employers and his mother Stockard Channing), he awkwardly resumes his double identity and sets in motion a series of events forever changing everyone's lives. Channing is underutilized as the spiritually beaten, bilingual waitress. Still, these solid performances help convey the sad truths behind the spread of the disease.

It is the latest feature from Canadian director Thom Fitzgerald, whose previous film, The Event, also addressed AIDS through adroit storytelling. Since his 1997 feature debut, The Hanging Garden, Fitzgerald has won more than two dozen international awards, including the Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television Award (Genie) and the FIPRESCI European International Critics' Prize, as well as the People's Choice Award at the Toronto International Film Festival.

Stoutheartedly, the filmmaker constructs parallel journeys that are loosely connected through the film, but become one tragic parable in the end. Described by one critic as a "visual beauty in the face of ugly human behaviour," 3 Needles places three disparate cultures into a sharp, panoramic view. It illustrates the gamut of ways in which HIV/AIDS infections accelerate through poverty, cultural bias and, sometimes, sheer ignorance.

Although gripping and void of sentimentality, the film may be difficult to follow in some places. It has been criticized for being over-reaching, plodding and structurally problematic. Nonetheless, it is one of the most socially relevant feature-length films about the deadly virus and is a great discussion tool for both health advocates and civil society groups.

3 Needles debuted in Toronto on April 13. It is expected to play in select theatres across Canada. It plays in English as well as in Afrikaans, Xhosa, Mandarin and French with subtitles.