Harvey Weinstein’s Gaby Dellal’s 3 Generations is a prime example of how excessive studio meddling (in this case, by the notorious Weinstein Company) motivated by an undue obsession with box office and/or Oscar positioning often results in abominably-incomprehensible editing (there are two editors here! TWO! 2! For a 90-minute character dramedy!), sapping what could’ve been a perfectly fine, effectively-intimate human story of its natural humanity, thereby becoming more reminiscent of an ineffectively-transparent corporate product.

Perhaps re-edits were necessary after an abysmal first cut (though it didn’t receive terrible reviews when screened at film festivals years ago). But the current version reeks of businessmen – NOT artists – wanting a little bit of everything to appeal to everyone yet ending up with a whole lot of nothing, albeit comprised of promising but wildly uneven parts. The last scene is an apt microcosm: “I’m proud of you” is an emotionally resonant final moment…ultimately butchered by the needless jump cuts that immediately precede the final credits. Another wasted opportunity in a movie full of them.

P.S. Obligatory shout-outs from this theatre obsessive for MARIA DIZZIA!!! and SUSAN BLACKWELL!!!, who deserve better than their respective roles as the insignificant “new wife” and a glorified extra. Yet more squandering courtesy of the Weinsteins 3 Generations…