3 Generations

Name: 3 Generations
Genre: Drama, Comedy
Released: May 5, 2017
Duration: 92 min
Rating: 47
Cast: Elle Fanning, Naomi Watts, Susan Sarandon, Tate Donovan

2017

METASCORE

Mixed or average reviews based on 21 Critic Reviews

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USER SCORE

Generally unfavorable reviews based on 8 Ratings

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3.5	User Score Generally unfavorable reviews based on 8 Ratings

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Movie Details & Credits

Weinstein Company, The | Release Date: May 5, 2017 | Not Rated

Starring: Elle Fanning, Naomi Watts, Susan Sarandon, Tate Donovan

Summary: Ray (Elle Fanning) is a teenager who has come to the realization that she isn't meant to be a girl and has decided to transition from female to male. His single mother, Maggie (Naomi Watts), must track down Ray's biological father (Tate Donovan) to get his legal consent to allow Ray's transition. Dolly (Susan Sarandon), Ray's lesbianRay (Elle Fanning) is a teenager who has come to the realization that she isn't meant to be a girl and has decided to transition from female to male. His single mother, Maggie (Naomi Watts), must track down Ray's biological father (Tate Donovan) to get his legal consent to allow Ray's transition. Dolly (Susan Sarandon), Ray's lesbian grandmother is having a hard time accepting that she now has a grandson. They must each confront their own identities and learn to embrace change and their strength as a family in order to ultimately find acceptance and understanding. [TWC]… Expand

Director: Gaby Dellal

Genre(s): Drama, Comedy

Rating: Not Rated

Runtime: 92 min

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Critic Reviews

The Film Stage Jared Mobarak

May 4, 2017

[Fanning’s] performance is what you’d expect and the character is too—strong, dedicated, and on the cusp of hopelessness. It’s because of this that Watts actually shines brighter. Read full review

Neil Genzlinger

May 4, 2017

Ray is courageous just for making the decision to change sexes. The film — which, by the way, includes a surprising amount of droll humor — would be better if it trusted the audience to recognize this, rather than piling ordeals worthy of the Labors of Hercules onto its protagonist. Read full review

Darren Ruecker

May 4, 2017

About Ray is not, in the end, a triumph, but is still good and necessary viewing for its subject matter. Read full review

The Playlist Kevin Jagernauth

Sep 14, 2015

Ultimately, Dellal’s film is never as brave or courageous as Ray, and in spending more time on Maggie than her son, misses the opportunity to jump from informational to insightful. Read full review

Peter Travers

May 4, 2017

How do you screw this up? You've got three leading actresses – Susan Sarandon, Naomi Watts and Elle Fanning – who are usually worth watching in anything. But 3 Generations is pushing it. Even nurturing talent can't breathe life into a script that is completely D.O.A. Read full review

Emily Yoshida

May 4, 2017

While 3 Generations certainly has some worthy explorations, it’s too vain not to sugarcoat itself, visually or otherwise. Read full review

David Lewis

May 10, 2017

This is a movie that derives most of its suspense on whether a piece of paper will be signed, not a strong basis for dramatic tension. Here and there, we see moments of genuine emotion, but even then, it feels like we’ve been there, done that. Read full review

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GreatMartin

May 12, 2017

“3 Generations” could have, would have and should have been a great movie if the director Gaby Dellal and Nikole Beckwith, who co-write the screenplay with Dellal, didn’t go off on a tangent instead of dealing with Elle Fanning’s character Ray, who was born Ramona, and has many obstacles“3 Generations” could have, would have and should have been a great movie if the director Gaby Dellal and Nikole Beckwith, who co-write the screenplay with Dellal, didn’t go off on a tangent instead of dealing with Elle Fanning’s character Ray, who was born Ramona, and has many obstacles with his transition.

His single mother Maggie, played by Naomi Watts, and Ray, live with her mother, Dodo, played by Susan Sarandon, and her longtime lover Frances, played by Linda Emond.

At the beginning of the movie we see Maggie trying to deal with Ray’s decision, struggling with what verbs to use, worried that after Ray goes through the change he may think he made a mistake plus having to put up with Dodo, an old time feminist, who believes Ray should stay Ramona and just be a lesbian. If the film had stuck with Ray’s story and the reaction of the two older generation it would have been an excellent film but instead it veers off to Maggie’s past and the complications that involves

Ray’s father Craig, played by Tate Donovan, who hasn’t had anything to do with Ramona for more than a decade, now discovers his daughter needs his signature on the consent form to become his son. We also meet his brother Matthew, played by Sam Trammell, who was involved with them. Throw in that Craig now haves another family with 3 kids and all of a sudden we turn from an involved story of a transgender person into a soap opera.

Maggie’s story is interesting but she deserves her own movie. This movie is only an hour and 27 minutes but it feels as if 3 hours was being packed into it.

Elle Fanning gives a very strong, believable performance as a transgender teenager who knows who he is and is willing to stand up for his decisions while Naomi Watts as his mother shows the perplexing problems a parent can go through while this is all taking place with an equally strong performance. As always Sarandon gives a dynamic performance while Linda Emond is very droll as the put upon lover. They are both wasted in the film as are Donovan and Trammell’s story lines .

Television is way ahead of film regarding the issues and understandings of transgender while movies, aside from “Boys Don’t Cry” and “The Crying Game”, need to get serious on the subject.

“3 Generations” is a good start on transgender issues but it gets bogged down in what use to be called a ‘women’s film’. It is worth seeing for Fanning’s performance and for people who have no idea what transgender people are about and go through.… Expand

1 of 1 users found this helpful10

tipar

Sep 2, 2018

Although a hurra for treating this with naturalness I must say that I found it to "politically correct", for the masses.

0 of 0 users found this helpful00

zNeverSleeping

May 19, 2020

Meu nome é Ray não é um filme ruim, mas está longe de extrair todo potencial do tema.

Aqui temos como gênero drama cômico, e até então não há nada de errado nisso, pois há filmes como O Lobo de Wallstreet, dirigido por Martin Scorsese, que mesmo tendo um lado cômico mais acentuado que esteMeu nome é Ray não é um filme ruim, mas está longe de extrair todo potencial do tema.

Aqui temos como gênero drama cômico, e até então não há nada de errado nisso, pois há filmes como O Lobo de Wallstreet, dirigido por Martin Scorsese, que mesmo tendo um lado cômico mais acentuado que este próprio filme, não peca em trabalhar temas como Abuso de drogas, prostituição, lifestyle da vida de um corretor e não ficam devendo na profundidade de cada personagem ali apresentado - é muito importante ressaltar isso, pois devemos desvincular a ideia de que uma obra cômica não pode se aprofundar sobre seus temas e personagens. Aqui, a diretora escolhe não levar a obra tão a sério, e como consequência não há verossimilhança, não acreditamos que o que estamos vendo é real, logo fica dificílimo se pôr no lugar dos personagens, pois não há um estudo de personagem convincente e muitas coisas parecem convenientes pro roteiro funcionar, como a garota que o protagonista gosta falando que deve ser horrível baterem numa *garota* e logo depois sumir da trama, ou seu pai relevando algo pesadíssimo justo no momento que o filme precisava. Fora o alívio cômico que a dupla de Susan Sarandon e Linda Emond fazem o filme todo, o que nos leva a pensar "poxa, se a vó dela não está levando a situação a sério, fazendo piadas o tempo todo, porque eu deveria levar?"

E tudo isso que eu falei leva a um problema estrutural que é recorrente nas produções da Netflix e assola esse filme, que é estar direcionado a um nicho. O que limita seu poder de passar o conhecimento a frente e apenas conta coisas que o público alvo já sabe. O real problema é que quando o filme tenta dispor de temas tão complexos de maneira tão artificial, como a transexualidade, a falta de um pai na vida de uma criança - ou a diversidade de uma família - e o impacto que isso trás ao seu psicológico é que a se abre uma margem para más interpretações por parte de quem nunca teve um contato com os temas propostos, se tornando um desserviço.… Expand

0 of 0 users found this helpful00

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