We see the writer, the director and the actress separately, but given that they all know Shields at round the same time, you would think that their paths would overlap far more than they actually seem to do. I got the feeling that that would have made it very complicated to write, TBH.
shareJust watched it and that was my thought exactly. As you said, it would probably have been too confusing if written that way.
shareI haven't analyzed it terribly closely, but I did read a synopsis that stated that Shields' rise and fall happens over 18 years, so it's not at all necessary that they were involved with him at the same time.
shareAs much as I liked the subtle ending, the great beginning and the frame with the telephone, I agree. I thought the movie fell apart and became were static and predictable. Person 1 tells his highs and lows, then person 2, then person 3. This is a very tight concept, which did not help the story to get its own life in my head as is so beatifully said by Shields.
If the three short stories are that much defined, at least the frame needed to be more dynamic. I felt Harry Pebbel's speech to the three quite stagey and then its not the three just drifting away one after the other, but they start narrating "when I first met Jonathan...". This gave a very artificial feel.