3 Generations was supposed to come out in a general theatrical release domestically all the way back in September 2015 with the title of About Ray. After it garnered a critical thrashing at the Toronto International Film Festival, The Weinstein Company pulled it from its release schedule and it basically vanished. Then, earlier this year, it was abruptly announced that the studio would be releasing About Ray under its current title and in a smaller theatrical release under their Radius-TWC banner, which had been discontinued for over a year but was briefly brought back to life solely for the purpose of getting this feature finally released.
Its blink-and-miss-it theatrical run gone and now that it's been rushed off to home video, let's take a look at 3 Generations which, unfortunately, doesn't end up being a mistreated diamond in the rough of a movie. Though the title would imply this movie would have equal focus on the three women coming from distinctly different age groups, Transgender teenager Ray (Elle Fanning), Maggie (Naomi Watts) and Dolly (Susan Sarandon), that's distinctly untrue. Ray isn't much more than a background prop used to generate inter-family conflict while Maggie comes closest to being a traditional protagonist though she's so thinly-sketched that it's notably dull to watch her grapple with the myriad of problems she's facing.
Dolly, meanwhile, is the Lesbian grandma of the group that feels like she's wandered in from another movie. She's around to provide poorly-written quips and to also be disapproving of Ray's gender reassignment procedure until she abruptly isn't disapproving anymore towards the end of the third act. The primary conflict these three characters revolve around to varying degrees is that, in order to fully go through the gender reassignment procedure, Ray needs the signature of both of her parents and her dad's been M.I.A. for almost her entire life. Maggie's struggling mightily to both sign the vital paperwork herself as well as get her absentee ex-husband to put his name on the dotted line.
There are moments where it looks like 3 Generations is about to become something more interesting, more thought-provoking or even just more emotionally engaging than it ends up being. There's this one scene where Ray is walking down an alleyway and is confronted by a guy from his High School that starts to harass him. We only see the first few seconds of this encounter and then we cut to a striking image, this wide shot depicting a forlorn and alone Ray sitting in a public setting. We don't need to see the harassment Ray just received to understand what he's been through, this singular image has a subtle tragedy and loneliness to it that gets the job done on its own.
Unfortunately, that's the only time 3 Generations really decides to lean on subtlety when it comes to dealing with his its various characters are feeling. Though it's shot in a more naturalistic manner, nearly every line that comes out of a character's mouth in 3 Generations is clumsily straining so very hard to sound profound to the point that it just comes off as laughable. Even worse are the moments where the script tries to deliver examples of levity, with Susan Sarandon's very action of entering a scene meaning I had to groan at the prospect of her delivering forced witty retorts that make her feel wacky and broad in a movie that seems to be otherwise clearly channeling a more down-to-Earth aesthetic.
There's plenty of examples of 3 Generations going for the trite and familiar when it feels like it should be going for the distinctive, such as Maggie coping with her stress by eating copious amounts of cream (couldn't they at least choose a more unique sweet treat for her to ingest in large quantities?). And then there's the third act, which suffocates the plot in enough plot twists related to Maggie's past that even M. Night Shyamalan would go "Guys, this is too much!". Once the film basically just becomes an extended exercise in slut-shaming Naomi Watts character in its final twenty minutes, it's apparent that poorly-done surprise twists and turns have replaced any semblance of riveting drama, if there ever was any such element in the film beforehand.
Worst of all, Ray gets pushed to the sidelines once all of this turmoil from his Mom's past gets brought up, though the movie hasn't really been doing all that good of a job of examining what makes him tick beyond just constantly using generic shots from Ray's POV when he's skateboarding that highlight various parts of New York City. Aside from the aforementioned nicely subdued scene showing Ray recovering from being harassed, the screenplay for 3 Generations (penned by director Gaby Dellal and playwright Nikole Meckwith) shoves its potentially most interesting character to the side to make way for stupid plot twists and out-of-place wacky antics with Ray's grandma. I had hoped 3 Generations would be better than the toxic buzz suggested, but aside from decent cinematography and admirable performances from Naomi Watts and Elle Fanning, it's a full-on mess that wants to preach a message of acceptance for Transgender individuals while also refusing to accept that a Transgender actor could have played the role of Ray. That's the kind of cognitive dissonance found throughout 3 Generations that makes it turn out to be so lackluster.
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