Closeup- Beth in Car Door Window-Door handle opening as someone gets in-Closeup of his handsome face--Beth: Can you excuse me, I have to stop for donuts. Closeup of Shop Door, Beth walking in then ignition key turning as hitch hiker moves her car. Beth looks away. Beth: Hurry with that couple of dozen, I'm pregnant. She carries the donut box out, gets into the car. The Hitch Hiker's hand grabs a donut from the box, Closeup of a donut hole. His mouth munches one down. Cut to Rain falling on car back window, steam rising and groans from within while he makes out with her. Later, interior, apartment, Beth's hand is seen picking up a script. The cover page reads, "Never use close camera angles or other devices so often it makes the viewer lose interest in the characters and story. Try to film a movie the way you'd like a live audience to watch it. Grade F, see me. Professor Hollywood Hack."

Delia Shunt lives with her abusive father after her mother left. She became the school slut. Then she (Kyra Sedgwick) marries Kurt Wurtzle who turns out to be even more abusive than her father. She escapes with her three kids to live in the garage of a chubby former classmate who she helped on occasion.

Greta Herskowitz (Parker Posey) has been married to the boring Lee for four year as he seems to have lost his ambition over time. She's a cookbook editor. Hot writer Thavi Matola specifically asks for her to edit his next book. She starts an affair with him. Her father was a highly successful lawyer who divorced her Auschwitz-survivor mother for his young assistant. She stopped seeing her father.

Paula (Fairuza Balk) picks up a hitchhiker and drives back to her mother after running away two years ago. She's pregnant but she doesn't want to be. She almost got run over. She's not sure what to do until he discovers wounds on the hitchhiking kid.

There are three stories and the main connection is that there are three interesting female lead characters. I really like the first story. I like that she's so defensive that she comes off as mean-spirited. I would like for the story to expand and see her character evolve. It feels like a movie cut off after the first third. The second story is different. Although Greta's husband is suppose to be a dud, it would be nice to have a more compelling actor playing a dud. It's a fine short story but I'm not particularly interested in watching more of that relationship. The third story is similar to the first in that Paula is struggling. That's also an interesting short story. This time, I wish the kid is a more compelling actor. He could have broken this section wide open but he doesn't have the charisma. All three are interesting but I like the first one more.

'Personal Velocity: Three Portraits' is an engaging and different movie about the lives of three women. With great direction, camera, narration and performance of the cast, it hooks the attention of the viewer until the last scene. The stories have in common an accident and three woman intending to change their lives leaving their mates. Delia (Kyra Sedgwick) is the daughter of a hippie, abused in her adolescence by her friends, married with a former boy-friend of high-school and having three children. She leaves her husband, who beats her, with the children. In a new town, beginning a new life working as a waitress and living on favor in the garage of a high school friend, she repeats the same mistake of her youth. Greta (Parker Posey) is an editor, who has never gotten close to her father after his divorce of her mother. She is married with a simple guy who loves her, but she is sort of nymphomaniac. When she becomes successful in her career, she gets closer to her father again and returns to her former ambitious way of life. Paula (Fairuza Balk) is a woman who left her family and moved alone to Manhattan. She is rescued from the streets by a man, and starts living with him. When she gets pregnant, she becomes confused with the situation and leaves home. An accident first and an incident with a lonely and wounded boy later helps her to decide her destiny. 'Personal Velocity: Three Portraits' is a nice and attractive independent low budget movie. I have really not understood why the stories are narrated by a man, since they are about women. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): 'O Tempo de Cada Um' ('The Time of Each One')