From director John Cassavetes (The Killing of a Chinese Bookie), this film from the 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die book was rated rather well by the critics, so I hoped I would agree with their opinions, as the book has often rewarded me with some great watches I otherwise may not have found. Basically, shot in a style similar to documentary, the marriage of a middle-aged couple is disintegrating and in its final stages, the husband Richard Forst (The Godfather's John Marley) is the one who demands the divorce from Maria (Oscar nominated Lynn Carlin), he is leaving her to be with Jeannie Rapp (The Notebook's Gena Rowlands) and many groups and individuals are coming to see them during this time. After the divorce is filed a company of brash businessmen and prostitutes is who Richard spends a night with, while his wife spends her time with middle-aged her female friends and an ageing free-associating playboy, and then young Chet (Oscar nominated Seymour Cassel) from Detroit. This night is full of conversations that cause tension and confrontations, modern American lifestyle is illustrating from all of this as interests, love lives and emotional/spiritual fulfilment of characters is brought into the situations. Pretty much all the character display dissatisfaction and are deeply happiness with their personal lives and try to cover this up while hanging with their friends putting on a false face, and overall there is no hope in the film at all, it only presumes most people in the world have to realise they may be unhappy in some way. Also starring Fred Draper as Freddie Draper, Val Avery as Jim McCarthy, Dorothy Gulliver as Florence, Joanne Moore Jordan as Louise Draper, Darlene Conley as Billy Mae, Gene Darfler as Joe Jackson and Elizabeth Deering as Stella. The performances by Marley and Rowlands and the supporting cast members are fine, and the direction is also fine, I think the only problem for me was that I couldn't really follow what was going on, apparently the film was meant to last six hours, so it was probably a good idea it was cut down, there were some interesting sequences so overall it was an alright drama. It was nominated the Oscar for Best Writing, Story and Screenplay - Written Directly for the Screen. Good!