re:mote voices

Title: Personal Velocity: Three Portraits
Cast: Kyra Sedgwick, Parker Posey, Fairuza Balk
Director: Rebecca Miller

Personal Velocity is a series of three short stories, which while I expected them to be somehow interconnected aren’t really. The only commonality between the three is that each of the stories features the same news report at some point. Each of the stories features a woman who is trying to lead their life, and in the process gain a separation from the lives of their parents, however as things go on it becomes clear that they are instead repeating their mistakes.

Delia (Kyra Sedgewick) is a woman in her 30s, with a couple of kids. She has fallen into the trap of love. Initially she comes across as sassy, but it soon becomes clear that the relationship is an abusive one. As she is beaten, her kids screaming, she recalls her mother left her father because of the violence. With little hope she flees from the home, and tries to make up for the last few years.

Greta (Parker Posey) is a woman in her late 20s. She feels that she has become a failure, not really having gone on to become what she was expected to. But at least her husband loves her, and would never leave her. Yet it becomes clear that for all she rejects her fathers habit of replacing wives every few years, it seems that she has inherited the same trait. With the introduction of promotion, and the possibility that she might be a success after all, she is forced to face up to the reality.

Paula (Faruiza Balk) is a woman in her early 20s. She ran away from home, fled to the big city. There she met a man who took her in, helped her, and they have been together ever since. However the news that she is pregnant, and being present at the accident that we keep hearing about, has thrown her into a turmoil. While driving to get away from her problems she picks up a hitchhiker, who in some ways reminds her of her own running away.

The first two stories have more of a negative tone, mixing in more of the past, which explains who the characters are, but also emphasises the fact that they are just living on repeat. The third story is more focussed on the present, its more about immediacy, interpreting signs, and is most clearly hopeful in it’s conclusion.

Sitting watching something like this by myself at home, I found that I was a little like Greta, at times too restless. Which meant my attention wandered a little too easily, exacerbated by the format of these three short unconnected stories. The film is done using digital recording, which gives it that gritty, hard reality feel – another of the films from the same company that were behind the more recent Pieces Of April. One of the extras on the DVD, which allow for a greater appreciation of the film, of the stories and the characters is a conversation between the women involved. Parker Posey and Faruiza Balk talk with Rebecca Millar the writer and director of the film, who adapted the first two stories from short stories she had published in a series, and written the third part specifically for the film version. With this conversation you get a better idea of how things came together, the process involved and how the actresses approached the piece.