How sad is this?

I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

I didn’t really have many expectations going into the movie (good or bad), but I actually really enjoyed it. I really liked the characters and the banter between them.

This is a dark and sometimes deeply uncomfortable drama

Gena Rowlands is cast as the woman under the influence of some undefined mental disorder. Her acting is superb; when the camera is in a close-up of her face, her chops are just better than anything I have seen. Her facial gestures, the eyes, furrowing of the brows, nose twitching, everything - is the best I have seen in an actor portraying emotions and thoughts without having to say too much. Wow.In my opinion, it was her husband, Nick (Peter Falk) who was the one who needed to be put away. He portrayed a man who was angry, and he was angry and violent throughout the movie, for the most part. Poor Mabel (Rowlands), she was at the mercy of his anger and emotionally did what she had to do to cope.But this was a different era; it was shown, through Cassavetes' writing and direction, that it was acceptable then, in some American blue-collar homes, to slap women around, threaten people, give children alcohol, as long as it was the man of the house doing it.How times have changed, and it was through movies like this, where bizarre social behavior that was on the borderline of acceptable in that era, may have been a catalyst for the audience to examine their own emotions and mores.

A polarizing character study on the disparity between genders in tackling mental illness. Mabel is a young mother of three and wife to blue-collar worker Nick, who is desperately trying to keep up appearances while his relationship with his wife is falling apart. Despite Mabel's seemingly odd behaviour, she is a loving mother and her children adore her but one night Nick doesn't come home at night, and Mabel begins to fall apart at the seams. As her behaviour becomes increasingly bizarre, her relationships begins to crumble and Nick's frustration mounts as he struggles to get a handle on his family. Shot documentary-style, 'A Woman Under the Influence' is one of the most honest portrayals of 'group-think' culture and the intimate effects of gender inequality.

From Oscar and Golden Globe nominated director John Cassavetes (Shadows, Faces, The Killing of a Chinese Bookie), I found this film in the book 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die, I was certainly interested in watching it for this placement, and the leading stars sounded appealing. Basically in Los Angeles, housewife and mother Mabel Longhetti (Golden Globe winning, and Oscar nominated Gena Rowlands) is slowly developing strange mannerisms and her behaviour is becoming increasingly odd, she wants to please her construction worker husband Nick (Peter Falk) who she loves dearly, but he is concerned about the way she is being in the company of other people. He believes she is becoming a threat to other and herself, so he reluctantly has her committed to an institution to undergo six months of mental treatment, but left alone with their three children he seems no better or wiser than his wife, he cannot fulfil the role society expects him to play, and he is changing in the way he relates to and reacts to his offspring. Six months pass and Mabel returns home, but is clear she is still mentally and emotionally strained in doing so, and her husband seems ill prepared for her return also, he at first planned a welcome home party with guests, but at the last minute cancels and send the guests home, knowing that this is foolish. Mostly only close family, including Mabel's parents, Nick's parents, and their three children, go to greet Mabel for her return, but even this is overwhelming for her and for Nick, and the evening becomes another night or torment and anguish as the couple emotionally and psychological argue. During this very bad fight Mabel cuts herself, and following these events the rest of the family leave, she and Nick are left alone to put the children to bed, but they cannot sleep knowing that the distress may mean her leaving again, they profess their love for their mother, she eventually gets them to bed, and the film ends with no real resolution as Mabel and Nick get ready for bed themselves. Also starring Matthew Cassel as Tony Longhetti, Matthew Labyorteaux as Angelo Longhetti, Christina Grisanti as Maria Longhetti, Katherine Cassavetes (John's mother) as Margaret Longhetti, Lady Rowlands (Gena's mother) as Martha Mortensen and Fred Draper as George Mortensen. I can see why Rowlands was nominated the awards, she is pretty convincing as the mentally unstable wife who struggles to keep the family she loves, and Falk is equally good as the husband struggling to cope with his wife's erratic behaviour, it is a simple premise, a wife having a mental breakdown, being sent away for treatment, and returning with no real change, I agree that if the film was judged just by acting it would is fantastic, but being just over two hours it does feel a little too stretched, otherwise it is a most watchable drama. It was nominated the Golden Globes for Best Motion Picture - Drama and Best Screenplay for John Cassavetes. Very good!

"A Woman Under the Influence" - like other Cassavetes films - is a difficult one to put into any specific drawer. Which is a good thing as it is able to push different buttons for different people and keeps the viewer on the edge of their seat and actively involved throughout. Not in the Hollywood kind of way, mind you, full with overblown drama, enhanced with musical cues and a heart-warming love story at the core, but rather in a way that makes you care, feel that it matters, that gets under your skin as a person, not just as a movie consumer. The main reasons why the film is so engaging and absorbing lies in the fact that it draws from convincingly portrayed lives rooted in a Seventies reality, the lives of a blue collar husband and a housewife with two kids. It's a familiar constellation with the ordinary domestic mayhem between troubles, challenges and duties, the need to show emotions and to suppress them at the same time, and there's always the urge to escape. It all comes down to a life on the edge, where people as partners in marriage are trapped in the confines of their everyday existence.On the surface "A Woman Under the Influence" is about a woman going mad and people in her environment having to deal with it. But thanks to the characterisations of Gena Rowlands (Cassavete's wife in the part of Mabel Longhetti) and Peter Falk (as her husband Nick) a rather simple story like this gets complex and multi-layered. Cassavetes delivers cinéma vérité the way it is meant to be. The film shamelessly shows us our fears, the emotional abysses between people, confronts us with the resulting traumas, all based on the influences we have on each other. It makes us suffer with both protagonists and their efforts, their eventual helplessness to deal with the situation, to find the common ground of the relationship. And in a struggle things go overboard. "Will you please stand up for me?" Mabel asks in one crucial scene, and if we don't judge first but listen, we might also hear what she's trying to say.