Thom Fitzgerald’s dramatic meditation on AIDS is harrowing, gritty, and about 10 years too late. It takes place in three chapters set on different continents. The title object figures prominently in each yarn; more disturbing, however, are the individuals morally responsible for viral spread. In China, a very pregnant woman (Lucy Liu) is raped by soldiers for running a blood-trade business. In Montreal, a porn actor (Shawn Ashmore) drops in a vial of his father’s blood as a test sample so the studio won’t discover he’s positive. And in Africa, a trio of nuns (Olympia Dukakis, Sandra Oh, and Chloë Sevigny) watch over an impoverished village where men believe that if they have sex with a virgin (that would be a very young child), the disease will be exorcised. The film is lush and hypnotic, but many of the tragic plot twists feel forced. Still, 3 Needles reminds us that AIDS is still rampant in places far from Western eyes.
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