I really wanted to love this. I think that John Cassavetes uses a powerful aesthetic technique that gives the film a very authentic atmosphere throughout. A lot of the time it felt more like we were just living with these people then like we were watching actors reading written dialogue. Almost improvised in a lot of ways, or I'd even go as far to say like a home movie. Peter Falk delivers a tremendous performance as the husband of Gena Rowlands' mentally unstable Mabel. Cassavetes constructs the whole thing as a study on the role of madness in the American family, how it buries in and makes an impact on the entire household.
Rather than strictly making it a study of the psychotic Mabel, he makes an intimate point in exploring Falk's Nick, the loving and eternally trying husband. In Falk you can feel that peculiar blend of resentment and adoration towards Mabel, constantly lashing out at her mistakes but eventually coming back down out of the everlasting love he feels towards her. This is where the work by Cassavetes shines the most, in exploring that strange balance that occurs with this kind of love, with this kind of person being in a marriage. The film is deeply uncomfortable at times, which I mean as a huge compliment, when we see strangers and even friends gathered around witnessing Mabel's madness and being completely unsure of how to react. I think a lot of scenes go on too long and there's no reason for this to be over two hours, but the eerie sensation Cassavetes is able to bring out of these extended interactions was very interesting to me.
Where the film doesn't work for me and what dragged it down a lot, unfortunately, was in Rowlands' performance. I wanted so badly to adore her, but she was so inconsistent. Her more reserved moments are brilliant, an unsettling picture of a happy woman with a madness lurking within her, but it's her more manic displays where she totally lost me. In all of her ticks and eccentric behavior, Rowlands felt so calculated, none of it coming off naturally or with any sense of believability. It was honestly hard to watch at times, not in the good way, seeing a film with such an approach of authenticity be dragged down by a performance that was absolutely anything but. It all leveled out somewhere around the middle for me, able to greatly admire the work of Falk and Cassavetes but deeply disappointed by Rowlands.
Rather than strictly making it a study of the psychotic Mabel, he makes an intimate point in exploring Falk's Nick, the loving and eternally trying husband. In Falk you can feel that peculiar blend of resentment and adoration towards Mabel, constantly lashing out at her mistakes but eventually coming back down out of the everlasting love he feels towards her. This is where the work by Cassavetes shines the most, in exploring that strange balance that occurs with this kind of love, with this kind of person being in a marriage. The film is deeply uncomfortable at times, which I mean as a huge compliment, when we see strangers and even friends gathered around witnessing Mabel's madness and being completely unsure of how to react. I think a lot of scenes go on too long and there's no reason for this to be over two hours, but the eerie sensation Cassavetes is able to bring out of these extended interactions was very interesting to me.
Where the film doesn't work for me and what dragged it down a lot, unfortunately, was in Rowlands' performance. I wanted so badly to adore her, but she was so inconsistent. Her more reserved moments are brilliant, an unsettling picture of a happy woman with a madness lurking within her, but it's her more manic displays where she totally lost me. In all of her ticks and eccentric behavior, Rowlands felt so calculated, none of it coming off naturally or with any sense of believability. It was honestly hard to watch at times, not in the good way, seeing a film with such an approach of authenticity be dragged down by a performance that was absolutely anything but. It all leveled out somewhere around the middle for me, able to greatly admire the work of Falk and Cassavetes but deeply disappointed by Rowlands.