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A Woman Under the Influence

1974

John Cassavetes

Gena Rowlands, Peter Falk, Katherine Cassavetes, Fred Draper ...

7.6

5,348

Drama John Cassavetes's A WOMAN UNDER THE INFLUENCE is an emotionally devastating drama that charts the mental disintegration of a California housewife. Mabel Longhetti (Gena Rowlands) has no emotional or creative outlets. Instead, she pours all her energy into her family, spending her days waiting for her husband Nick to arrive home from work, and anxiously awaiting her children's return from school. This dependence causes Mabel to suffer a ... [+]

	Author	Review
United States	Tim Grierson Village Voice	"Falk and the rest of the cast are exceptional (...) but Rowlands is the film"	POS
United States	Nora Sayre The New York Times	"The movie didn't need to be 2 hours and 35 minutes long: there's too much small talk (...) Still, the most frightening scenes are extremely compelling, and this is a thoughtful film that does prompt serious discussion."	POS
United States	Richard Brody The New Yorker	"The primal violence that binds men and woman has rarely been evoked as plausibly or intensely as in this 1974 drama"	POS
United Kingdom	Tim Robey Telegraph	"One of the rawest, toughest, most emotionally scalding portraits of a marriage ever put on screen."	POS
United Kingdom	William Thomas Empire	"At two-and-a-half hours, it could easily have dragged but with such strong performances, you're left wanting more. (...) Rating: ★★★★ (out of 5)"	POS
United States	Keith Phipps TV Guide	"Falk and Rowlands—in performances of almost indescribable intensity—detail a marriage anchored by love, but tossed by the expectations of others and the unpredictable swell of madness."	POS
United States	Roger Ebert rogerebert.com	"Perhaps the greatest of Cassavetes' films (...) Rating: ★★★★ (out of four)"	POS
United States	Dave Kehr Chicago Tribune	"Cassavetes makes the viewer's frustration work as part of the film's expressiveness; it has an emotional rhythm unlike anything else I've ever seen."	POS
United Kingdom	Time Out	"An astonishing, compulsive film, directed with a crackling energy. (...) Rating: ★★★★★ (out of 5)"	POS
United States	Mike Clark USA Today	"[It] is so uneasily lifelike that the academy temporarily ignored its prejudice against independent productions by rewarding Rowlands and Cassavetes with Oscar nominations"	POS
United States	TV Guide	"Tough-minded, moving study of a working-class housewife's mental breakdown, enhanced by superb performances from Rowlands, in the title role, and Falk as her husband."	POS

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