A slice of life from Cassavetes that captures the breaking point of a couple's marriage.
I feel like watching a Cassavetes movie about once every ten years. That's about how long it takes me to recover from the last one. His films are exhausting, and I find myself admiring them more than I ever love them. I certainly felt that way during "Faces." There's no denying the skill of the actors or Cassavetes' merciless brand of filmmaking (I can't even begin to imagine what audiences at the time made of this film, which came out in a year when "Oliver!" won the Best Picture Academy Award), but I grew pretty tired of it before it was over.
John Marley plays the male half of the married couple and probably gives the film's most memorable performance. Gena Rowlands, Cassavetes' long-time wife, plays one of his mistresses and isn't given a chance to display the acting chops she would use several years later to such devastating effect in "A Woman Under the Influence." Lynn Carlin (Oscar nominee for Best Supporting Actress) plays the cheated-on wife who does some cheating of her own with Seymour Cassell (Oscar nominee for Best Supporting Actor). And Cassavetes himself filled out the film's triumvirate of Oscar nominations with a nod for Best Original Story and Screenplay.
While I can't say I necessarily enjoyed "Faces," I will say it did a marvelous job of capturing that sense of middle-age malaise that hits men and women when they start to think of their lives as half over rather than half begun and a desperate need to feel needed begins to take hold.
Grade: B+
I feel like watching a Cassavetes movie about once every ten years. That's about how long it takes me to recover from the last one. His films are exhausting, and I find myself admiring them more than I ever love them. I certainly felt that way during "Faces." There's no denying the skill of the actors or Cassavetes' merciless brand of filmmaking (I can't even begin to imagine what audiences at the time made of this film, which came out in a year when "Oliver!" won the Best Picture Academy Award), but I grew pretty tired of it before it was over.
John Marley plays the male half of the married couple and probably gives the film's most memorable performance. Gena Rowlands, Cassavetes' long-time wife, plays one of his mistresses and isn't given a chance to display the acting chops she would use several years later to such devastating effect in "A Woman Under the Influence." Lynn Carlin (Oscar nominee for Best Supporting Actress) plays the cheated-on wife who does some cheating of her own with Seymour Cassell (Oscar nominee for Best Supporting Actor). And Cassavetes himself filled out the film's triumvirate of Oscar nominations with a nod for Best Original Story and Screenplay.
While I can't say I necessarily enjoyed "Faces," I will say it did a marvelous job of capturing that sense of middle-age malaise that hits men and women when they start to think of their lives as half over rather than half begun and a desperate need to feel needed begins to take hold.
Grade: B+