By 
“THREE WORLDS” ****
How guilty can someone feel about giving up a bright promising future in order to find peace of mind and self relief after committing a mistake? And how far can one provoke the line between right and wrong, when an accident, meaningless or deliberately, threatens one’s life?
In the first scene of this strongly moving drama, French director Catherine Corsini introduces the players of a tumultuous circumstance: Al is enjoying a night of heavy drinking and reckless driving among his buddies; Vera kisses her gambling husband on his way for a walk; Juliette is making room around the apartment while discusses the relationship with her partner. Suddenly, a car accident occurs, and these three figures will be linked within the fatality, leading them to cross paths, crash into each other and change their concept of righteousness and compassion when faced with someone else’s despair.
Corsini proves herself to be an impressive researcher of human emotions, as she reveals the characteristics of her characters, printing the aspect of guilty and conscious crisis throughout the film, in many levels and differences expressed on all three. The guilty they carry is the element Corsini uses to discuss humanitarian values brilliantly: Al is the most affected, due to his haunting conscience and caught up with the irresponsible fatal act that causes death, insecure and haunted by the fear of failure; Juliette, the witness, is afraid that something has got to do with her, and she needs to decide which role she will play in the event, she also holds the key to turn and fix things around and is aware that once the truth is hidden, she is also responsible for the accident; Vera is confronted by her loyalty and marital principles, in order to honor her deceased husband, she needs to explore her mixed feelings of anger and loss to set herself free.
Corsini marks the narrative with an anguishing tension, which creates a suspenseful atmosphere, where theses three different worlds collide. It resembles “Red” the masterwork of Kieslowski, becoming an impressive portrait of a society dealing with their intimate fears and crisis, proving that we need each other in order to survive and understand life. It’s a powerful look at lost values and the need of reassess our acts before getting surprised or devastated by the consequences. With astonishing performances, the look of discontentment and affliction in the immigrant Vera, the efforts of resurrecting virtues and pulling out the good in everyone of Juliette, and the weakness and desperate aspects of Al, wonderfully played by Raphael Personnaz, Corsini has created an outstanding study on modern social issues, one of this year’s best films. (Opens Friday at Quad Cinema, 34W 13th St. NYC, actress Arta Dobroshi will participate on a Q&A after the 7:15pm screening on June 21st)
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