I had very high expectations for A Woman Under the Influence, having seen Opening Night and The Killing of a Chinese Bookie, both of which I enjoyed well enough but wasn't wowed by. I finally thought this would be the Cassavetes movie that will knock me off my feet. Unfortunately, it didn't.
My main problem lies within the fact that the movie has nothing much to say in my opinion. Mabel starts off crazy and stays that way, there is no progression or a descent into madness. Her husband seems to be losing his mind throughout the movie but that is literally the only bit of character development in the film. So the movie boils down to both of them screaming at each other for two and a half hours. The thing is you can make a movie like this work if the characters are in interesting and the dialogue is great. It would probably still be a bit too long but there could be something there. But the problem with this film is the characters are not at all interesting but annoying and the dialogue is terrible and stiff. People praise Cassavetes because his movies supposedly feel natural but I don't think that's the case. To me in his quest to feel overly realistic he made his movies feel the opposite of that, they feel very "acted".
Maybe I am just not vibing with Cassavetes. Although I wasn't bored watching the other two movies of his, I still wouldn't call them peak cinema. I really wish I liked this movie but unfortunately this fascinating look at mental ilness as others have described it felt like it might drive me mad instead.
My main problem lies within the fact that the movie has nothing much to say in my opinion. Mabel starts off crazy and stays that way, there is no progression or a descent into madness. Her husband seems to be losing his mind throughout the movie but that is literally the only bit of character development in the film. So the movie boils down to both of them screaming at each other for two and a half hours. The thing is you can make a movie like this work if the characters are in interesting and the dialogue is great. It would probably still be a bit too long but there could be something there. But the problem with this film is the characters are not at all interesting but annoying and the dialogue is terrible and stiff. People praise Cassavetes because his movies supposedly feel natural but I don't think that's the case. To me in his quest to feel overly realistic he made his movies feel the opposite of that, they feel very "acted".
Maybe I am just not vibing with Cassavetes. Although I wasn't bored watching the other two movies of his, I still wouldn't call them peak cinema. I really wish I liked this movie but unfortunately this fascinating look at mental ilness as others have described it felt like it might drive me mad instead.