Os Três Desejos

I managed to find this movie on Amazon streaming. It is a nice movie about family values and ultimately, finding happiness in what you get in life rather than wishing your life were different. There are a few very harsh IMDb reviews, I don't understand that, this is a really well-made movie of a very nice story.

It starts in about 1985, it is Memorial Day, the start of summer vacation, and the family of four head out for a short trip. The dad, Tom, almost runs over a man and his dog, that incident flashes him back to 1955 when he was about 10 or 11 years old. His father had not returned from the Korean War and was presumed deceased. Young Tom had a lot of anger in his heart.

It was back then that Tom's mom almost ran over a man, Patrick Swayze as Jack, who also had a shaggy dog as a companion. Jack's foot was in a cast, as he heads away Tom's mom feels sorry for him and convinces him to stay with them until his cast is off. Jack has a very positive impact on young Tom.

In most appearances Jack comes across as a real man, but as he interacts with the Little League baseball team in a zen-like manner, and a few other things, we come to believe that he is more like Bagger Vance. Someone who may not be real but who comes into a life at a critical point. Young Tom needed to get his mojo back, to figure out what life is really about. When Tom as an adult encounters the same Jack and his dog in the cemetery, we know the answer.

Good movie with a message for everyone.

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.

I was up late already... But the story drew me in and as the minutes ticked by I decided this was worth it to stay up until 1:30 AM to see the ending even though 6 AM was going to come awfully early. This was an all-around feel-good movie... A bit of magic, a lot of courage from a single mom, a bit of baseball (and who doesn't like a bit of baseball in their movies?), a dog who might be more than a dog, and Patrick Swayze quietly helping a suburban community think outside the box. He's kindly and unfailingly honest. I'm just surprised the suburbanites didn't lynch him and stone his kind single-mom hostess after his first week there. The end had a nice wrap-around closure. Totally worth staying up for!

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

I watched this movie on TV twice. It's the first movie I've watched by Patrick Swayze. I was moved by the story and felt myself like that little Tom very much. I couldn't help crying when I saw the ending and told myself I should learn from this movie. And till then I began to understand the meaning of the movie.

It's a good movie for a family to watch together. I think many people can learn from this movie that we should cherish what we already have had in hand. As the saying says, happiness lies in satisfaction.

And it's not a big story, so it may not have got much attention from audience. But still I would say it's a good movie.