3 Women (1977)

3 Women
Directed by Robert Altman
Written by Robert Altman
1977/US
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0075612/reference
First viewing/Amazon Prime rental

Pinky Rose: I wonder what it’s like to be twins.
Millie Lammoreaux: Huh?
Pinky Rose: Twins. Bet it’d be weird. Do you think they know which ones they are?

This is one of the most bizarre movies I have ever seen.  Is is a mystery, psychological horror, science fiction, or is Altman just pulling our legs?

As the story begins, it is Pinky Rose’s (Sissy Spacek) first day at work as a therapist at a health spa for the infirm.  She is childlike and odd.  Millie Lammereaux (Shelley Duvall) shows her the ropes.  Pinky thinks she is the most perfect person she has ever seen.  She gets installed as Millie’s roommate where she gets to witness her ideas of decorating, meal preparation (always something disgusting involving packaged ingredients, with plenty of cheese whiz), and her seduction techniques.  Millie is definitely not as popular as she thinks she is, especially with the men.

The third woman is Willie Hart (Janice Rule).  She is the co-owner, with her philandering ex-stunt double husband, of a wild west saloon and attractions and the apartments where the girls live.  She is heavily pregnant, practically mute, and spends all her time painting huge scenes of angry aliens,

A tragedy occurs about halfway through the movie and the tables turn.  Toward the end another tragedy unfolds and they turn again.

Here, Altman gets to take a poke at the usual targets of his misanthropy but in a format that resembles Mulholland Dr. much more than any of his earlier films.  It is essentially a tale of identity swapping with no explanations given.  The acting is really good.  I always love Sissy Spacek.  Perhaps if I saw the film a couple more times I could figure out what Altman was getting at, but I’m not going to do that.