FI: A Woman Under the Influence

A powerful movie, though (like most Cassavetes) not entirely suited to my tastes, A Woman Under the Influence shows in exacting detail the madness of a family. I'm not entirely sure what Cassavetes is saying, here, because his films aim for something other than simple messages. Through his naturalistic dialog and non-traditional cinematic techniques, Cassavetes replicates something of the uncomfortable ambiguity of life itself. Rowlands is fantastic and utterly believable as a wife and mother who has seemingly lost her center, and Falk is effective as a working-class husband who is just as ill-equipped to deal with his life as his wife. Deliberately long and unfocused, the film MIGHT try your patience and certainly won't satisfy if you're searching for a simple narrative structure, but given half a chance, it's a compelling and emotional look into lives not as unfamiliar as we'd like to pretend.