“Three Goodbyes”: An Ode to the Art of Farewell
Spanish director Isabel Coixet’s “Three Goodbyes” is a moving and life-affirming drama that finds the director operating at the peak of her powers, creating a beautiful ode to saying farewell—three times over.
This excellent film has all of Coixet’s trademarks: a gentle, observational style that avoids melodrama, an intimate focus on small gestures, and a sharp eye for how emotion emerges from everyday details.
Shot on warm 35mm film, the director prioritizes emotional atmosphere over narrative propulsion, letting silences and glances speak louder than words.
Adapted from a short story by the late Italian writer Michela Murgia, the film is anchored by a tour-de-force performance from Alba Rohrwacher.
Her work is a masterclass in physical storytelling, charting her soul’s recalibration through corporeal language alone.
She conveys the initial weight of grief in the slump of her shoulders, and her subtle transformation is signaled by the slightest tilt of her head or a faint, enigmatic smile that holds both sorrow and a strange new awareness.
The film’s structure is built around three distinct goodbyes. The first goodbye is to her partner, Antonio, after a seemingly trivial argument. This is a goodbye to a shared future, which plunges Marta into a state of psychological void.
The second goodbye is more profound: a terminal diagnosis that forces her to bid farewell to her former sense of self and to the illusion of an infinite future. Yet, Coixet treats this not as a crushing blow, but as a paradoxical catalyst for liberation.
The third and final goodbye is to life itself. It is not a moment of despair but a quiet, gradual transformation into acceptance and gratitude for the time remaining.
The moving finale is set to Nina Simone’s haunting “I Get Along Without You Very Well,” a beautiful, rueful valentine to the art of the farewell.
“Three Goodbyes” is ultimately a life-affirming film that suggests saying goodbye sometimes means accepting that relationships continue to exist, even if they have changed form.
Elven Ho