This is written by Rebecca Miller and is taken from a collection of short stories she was writing for a book. The story is a trilogy of the lives of three women, Paula, Delia and Gretta, who have all reached a moment of truth in their lives and must now make choices that will affect the rest of their lives.

The movie opens with Delia, a 30 something woman married with three children. She was the daughter of an abusive father and her mother left the home when she was 12. Delia stayed to look after her father and her low self-esteem and lack of parental guidance led her to be the town slut. She met and married Curt, her husband when she was 17. Delia loved Curt, but he was a violent man and she was forced to finally leave him one day after spending two hours locked in a cellar. She could hear her kids calling for her from the bathroom, where they were also locked in. Desperate and with nowhere to go Delia took refuge in a women?s shelter. She hated being there and racked her brains for someone she could ask for help. Delia finally rang an old high school acquaintance named Fay (Delia remembered Fay was nick named ?Fat Faye? at school and was also an outcast with the high school crowd). Delia and the kids moved into Faye?s garage just for a while?…

Next we meet Gretta, young beautiful and stuck in a life she never imagined for herself. Gretta worked in a publishing house and her husband Lee was writing his dissertation and was nearly finished it. Lee was the most unambitious man Gretta had ever known and at times she felt she had only married Lee to spite her father. Lee was not Jewish and with Lee, Gretta could feel the ambition drain from her every being. They led a boring and charmed life until Gretta was offered a lucrative job editing a book for Thavi Matola, a famous author. Once back in the company of ambitious people and back in contact with her father after many hostile years apart, Gretta was forced to face the reality that her marriage to Lee would never work.

Paula, was a completely different story again, She was 28 and existed in a state of shock whilst she tried to make sense of her life. She had just found out she was pregnant to long her term live in lover and after realising that this was not what she wanted, she decided to go out to a bar for a few drinks. She met a man and spent several hours talking to him. On her way home from the bar the man was killed in a freak accident and Paula realised that if the accident had happened a few seconds earlier it would have been Paula that was killed, not the man. Paula runs away from the accident and heads for her parents home. She picks up a young boy who is hitch hiking. The boy is in trouble and has been severely beaten. Paula tries everything she can think of the ?save? this boy from his life.

The three stories are not related and do not meld together well; so it?s all a bit disjointed. I was hoping that there would be a thread of familiarity to entwine them all at the end. The concept of the story was great and the parts were all well written and acted, but it was like watching the first 20 minutes of three different movies, rather than watching a series, made for mini DV. Kyra Sedgewick (Delia the battered wife) played a great part and her performance was fabulous and was my favourite. The colour and authenticity of this movie was great. The other two women both played strong parts and the characters explored in this were very credible. While at times the movie had an amateur feel about it, the lack of makeup and special effects made this a very genuine movie. There was some minimal stereotyping of the minor characters, but the three women all played characters with great depth. The director has produced a series that displays many of the facets of human nature and has depicted a convincing portrait of life for the 30 something woman who stops just for a second, to reassess her life.

THE EXTRAS

The usual theatrical trailer. Quick overview of what to expect. Not a bad idea to watch this first if you want to know what to anticipate.

Interviews with the writer, producer, camera crew, and cast. (This was really boring and gratuitous. Lots of ?I thought you were wonderful? and ?you did that really well? blah, blah, blah, stuff. Don?t waste your time here.

A home movie style documentary, of the ?making of? terminal velocity. More of the same and a tad boring not something I would rush home to watch!

CONCLUSION

This is written by Rebecca Miller and is taken from a collection of short stories she was writing for a book. The story is a trilogy of the lives of three women, Paula, Delia and Gretta, who have all reached a moment of truth in their lives and must now make choices that will affect the rest of their lives.