Dreadfully Boring

A Disappointing Continuation

After playing with our expectations, this turns out to be a very different sort of film.

Excellent characters with emotional depth. My wife, daughter and granddaughter all enjoyed it...and me, too! Very good movie! You won't be disappointed.

In a Los Angeles suburb, Mabel (Gena Rowlands) is a stay-at-home Mom married to Nick (Peter Falk) who works in construction and has good friendships with his colleagues. During the film, Mabel shows signs of mental instability that eventually lead to a breakdown.If one word could be used to describe this film, it would be "raw". It is broken into three sections: Mabel's reaction when weekend plans with Nick are thwarted; the breakdown scene; and a return from the mental hospital. In all scenes, superbly directed by John Cassavetes, the ensemble acting is brilliant.Rowlands is perfect as the central character. Whether her mental illness is in remission or she is dangerously unstable, she is always believable in a very difficult role. What is equally amazing is the reaction of others to her troubled ways whether they be immediate family, extended family, friends, or strangers. Their awkwardness and discomfort are so real that such scenes can potentially remind one of similar incidents in one's own past.Rowlands' greatness is met by Falk whose character, like others, also lose stability in reaction to Mabel's condition. Katherine Cassavetes as Nick's mother, also gives a praiseworthy performance.This is one of those special films that could generate much discussion and thought afterward. One possible question is whether Nick is the mentally unstable one (aided by his mother) causing Mabel to fall apart. It was also ahead of its time with its depiction of mental illness and the collective response of "the elephant in the living room".It may seem long at two and a half hours but for those willing to see it to the end, the reward is plentiful.OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT: Directing by John Cassavetes

Nick Longhetti (Peter Falk) is an angry hard working blue collar worker. His wife Mabel (Gena Rowlands) has some mental issues. She's stressed out and manic. She gets into drunken one night stands. He flies into rages over her craziness. He loves her and never physically harms her. She's sent to a mental institution for 6 months. He throws a large party for her return but his mother berates him for inviting so many people. Even with only the family, she is overwhelmed by the experience.This is a showcase for Gena Rowlands' acting abilities. She is worthy of her accolades. Her performance is completely immersive. Peter Falk yells a lot and matches her intensity. This is a movie for the acting classes.

Mabel Longhetti (Gena Rowlands), a wife and mother, is loved by her husband Nick (Peter Falk) but her madness proves to be a problem in the marriage. The film transpires to a positive role of madness in the family, challenging conventional representations of madness in cinema. The film's creation and reception has an interesting story, perhaps almost as interesting as the film itself. Despite strong critical acclaim for his past work, Cassavetes had a hard time getting this one into theaters and may not have succeeded without the help of his fan Martin Scorsese...Why such trouble? The film went on to be one of the most critically-acclaimed films of all time. "Woman Under the Influence" was one of the first films selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".Nora Sayre, "Miss Rowlands unleashes an extraordinary characterization ... The actresses' style of performing sometimes shows a kinship with that of the early Kim Stanley or the recent Joanne Woodward, but the notes of desperation are emphatically her own." And Roger Ebert noted that this was "perhaps the greatest of Cassavetes' films."Indeed, the film is more satisfying than Cassavetes' earlier work. While perhaps not as influential as "Faces", this is the film that allowed Rowlands to really shine, and managed to be both mainstream and subversive at the same time. For those unacquainted with Cassavetes, this would be a good place to start.

I really wanted to love this. I think that John Cassavetes uses a powerful aesthetic technique that gives the film a very authentic atmosphere throughout. A lot of the time it felt more like we were just living with these people then like we were watching actors reading written dialogue. Almost improvised in a lot of ways, or I'd even go as far to say like a home movie. Peter Falk delivers a tremendous performance as the husband of Gena Rowlands' mentally unstable Mabel. Cassavetes constructs the whole thing as a study on the role of madness in the American family, how it buries in and makes an impact on the entire household.Rather than strictly making it a study of the psychotic Mabel, he makes an intimate point in exploring Falk's Nick, the loving and eternally trying husband. In Falk you can feel that peculiar blend of resentment and adoration towards Mabel, constantly lashing out at her mistakes but eventually coming back down out of the everlasting love he feels towards her. This is where the work by Cassavetes shines the most, in exploring that strange balance that occurs with this kind of love, with this kind of person being in a marriage. The film is deeply uncomfortable at times, which I mean as a huge compliment, when we see strangers and even friends gathered around witnessing Mabel's madness and being completely unsure of how to react. I think a lot of scenes go on too long and there's no reason for this to be over two hours, but the eerie sensation Cassavetes is able to bring out of these extended interactions was very interesting to me.Where the film doesn't work for me and what dragged it down a lot, unfortunately, was in Rowlands' performance. I wanted so badly to adore her, but she was so inconsistent. Her more reserved moments are brilliant, an unsettling picture of a happy woman with a madness lurking within her, but it's her more manic displays where she totally lost me. In all of her ticks and eccentric behavior, Rowlands felt so calculated, none of it coming off naturally or with any sense of believability. It was honestly hard to watch at times, not in the good way, seeing a film with such an approach of authenticity be dragged down by a performance that was absolutely anything but. It all leveled out somewhere around the middle for me, able to greatly admire the work of Falk and Cassavetes but deeply disappointed by Rowlands.