Three Wishes

This movie is better than the rating suggests. Patrick Swayze displays some tremendous acting skills as the ever blue Jack McCloud, a tramp and thorough loner. He is sincere and pervasive, as is Joseph Mazzello as Tom. The evolving relationship between the two of them is one of the three major themes of the movie. It is a relationship propelled by Tom's dear wish to have some male person around he can relate to and rely on, as his father is apparently absent. Jack, who joins the family as a stranger, develops a kind of deep and caring commitment towards the three family members. He doesn't push for it, it just happens. The second theme focuses around M.E. Mastrantonio's brilliant performance as Jeanne Holman, Tom's and Gunny's mom. Her despair mingled with hope and confidence makes her the archetype of the single parent of the Mid-50s, the era which is so superbly revived as the movie's setting. The third theme centers around Gunny, Tom's little brother, his belief in magic and fairies as well as his fears. This is the movie's underlying main theme, as the title itself suggests. The end, which makes you feel good and renews faith in what we have and ought to preserve and care for, reveals the message of the title and grants this movie an inspiring and deeply human message. Magic is out there - in everything we do and everything we dream of. It is the little things, the little signs of love and affection, of hope and endurance. Tom himself, as an adult, receives reassurance in his faith and his values by what Jack has done to his family when he was a young boy. The message is brilliant and makes this movie a solid 8/10. "Be yourself", Jack advises Tom. "And be happy with what you have" he adds much later in the movie. Hope and love will endure against all odds, if we allow magic into our lives. The same magic we believed in as kids. It is still there. You just have to admit it.

After reading nothing but negative reviews for Three Wishes all my expectations were crushed, but I watched it anyway. It was an excellent, perfectly acted (in most cases), well directed film with beautiful camera work. Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio plays a single mother of two whose husband supposedly died in Korea (it takes place in the fifties). She invites a mysterious stranger who she hit with her car (causing a broken leg) to stay with them until his cast is taken off, with no idea on how he will change their lives forever.

In his movies, Patrick Swayze is either good or horrendous. In this one he is both. At some points it looks like he'll get an Oscar, at others, a Golden Raspberry. The underrated Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio (The Abyss, Limbo) is very good in her role, but the best performance belongs to Joseph Mazzello, who plays her oldest son, Tom. Despite being third billed, Mazzello probably has the most screen time, and should've got some kind of award for his performance (though he wasn't as good her as he was in The Cure). The other two leads were good. In his first film Seth Mumy plays Mastrantonio's youngest son, and is given very few scenes with the rest of the family, spending most of his time with Swayze's dog, who I'll go to now. The dog is completely adorable and happens to be a very good actor, even though he/she is a dog.

Without revealing anything, I'll say that the ending was completely unexpected, in a bad way. It was stupid, full of holes, unnecessary and made the director look like she (I think) had run out of ideas. Michael O'Keefe plays Tom in 1995. He is so unbelievably awful, he almost bring the whole picture down with him. It would've been better if the narration had been left out. Sadly, Three Wishes was one of the box office disasters that destroyed Rysher Entertainment. (Who had my favorite logo for a production company. Bad reason)

+ (GOOD THINGS) 1.) Camera work 2.) The promising cast 3.) The adorableness (is that a real word?) of the dog 4.) Joseph Mazzello's performance 5.) Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio's performance 6.) Direction 7.) The script

• (BAD THINGS) 1.) The ending 2.) Flashback narration

Total: 8.5/10

for message, for performance, for Patrick Swayze and for the young Joseph Mazzello. sentimental, nice, seductive. soup for soul. one of films for romantics, useful, again and again, for remind the role of miracles. and for enjoy. sure, a film for a kind of public. no surprise. but, in same measure, one of films who, without be great or unique, is a good escape from reality and comfortable way to discover the life on a different angle. a film about a meeting. and about love. about magic. and about hope. about trust. almost a fairy tale in American spirit.interesting for a form of self definition. because, like every magic, it is more than a show.

Just watched this movie in TV. Although it had a slow pace and some of the characters were not fully developed, I liked it. Especially appealing to me, as a senior, was the locale and the truly accurate portrayal of life and times in the late 1950's. Even the kitchen appliances and the dish ware were spot on! I lived in a tract just like the one in the film - the San Fernando Valley urban explosion! I thought the players were all fine and the child actors were very effective. The story dragged a bit but pacing is not everything - sometimes it is good to linger a bit and be nostalgic. This is a good movie for thoughtful teens who can appreciate the message given about home, hope and history.

Certainly a mixed bag of comments on this one. I'm definitely one of this film's boosters. I saw it long ago on a motel tv in the middle of the night and have never forgotten it. My memory was that it was an 80s movie; I suppose because most of the plot was set in the 50s. When I rediscovered that it was made as late as 1995 I was quite surprised. The fact that women directors and writers were so heavily involved with this movie explains its beautiful emotional resonance. Even now as I write this I'm again deeply moved by the whole story and its telling. To me it's right up there with films like "It's a Wonderful Life" and "Miracle on 34th Street," etc. Recently TCM has been featuring great women screen writers like Frances Marion and April Guy Blache. I'm glad to discover that women are still and again strongly contributing to our collective screen world of emotions and feelings. Too bad this sensitive approach seems to turn some of your reviewers strongly off. Perhaps it's a gender thing.