A Woman Under the Influence poster & wallpaper

Fred Draper, Gena Rowlands, Lady Rowlands

A housewife, trapped in an unhappy marriage, plunges into madness.

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94% liked it

5,854 ratings

Critics

89% liked it

19 critics

R, 2 hrs. 26 min.

Directed by: John Cassavetes

Release Date: January 1, 1975

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DVD Release Date: June 29, 1998

Stats: 441 reviews

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Flixster Reviews (441)

  • Saxia
    October 6, 2009
    Saxia
    I was looking forward to a good cry, but I was a nervous wreck after finishing it. This movie is f***ing intense!
    Gena Rowlands won several awards for her performance as Mabel Longhetti for best actress, but I'm really curious who got the Oscar that year, because she should have...( read more) gotten it!

    I guess this movie is about madness. And I was confronted with my own perceptions and uncomfort with people who 'suffer' from 'psychiatric illness'. The scene that illustrated that the most is the one where she's waiting at the busstop for the school-bus to arrive, to pick up her kids. She's trying to get some people to tell her what time it is, but she scares them and you see her become increasingly agitated because they don't want to stop and tell her the time. I think this is one one of my favorite scenes because her body language, and the way she walks synchronize with the character she's playing. She totally convinced me there.

    After adding the trailer to Flixter and watching it a couple of times, I also have to comment on the outstanding performance of Peter Falk who plays Mabel Longhetti's husband Nick. The movie portrays the fascinating, beautiful and sometimes destructive relationship between the two. There are moments that you can't help but wonder which one of them is 'mad'.

    For me, Gena Rowlands' performance is definitely one of the most memorable in my movie-watching-history.
  • ceWEBrity
    May 16, 2009
    ceWEBrity
    Finals are over! I can actually watch movies again! This was a great induction back into the world of listless cinephilia, simply because I don't think I've ever seen a movie quite like it. Gena Rowlands gives an impeccable performance, painting this woman with incredible depth. ...( read more)She doesn't run straight to crazy-person quirk, but instead illuminates the pain she's feeling from the world around her, giving us a solid reason why she would retreat into madness. The movie does an incredible job of reminding us how harsh and oppressive society can be, especially toward people who think or function differently.

    Some might take umbrage with the length, and at two and a half hours, it is a formidably depressing slog. I thought it was worth every second, though. How did John Cassavetes have such an utterly untalented son?
  • her69eyes
    May 6, 2009
    her69eyes
    John Cassavetes' 1974 film "A Woman Under the Influence", starring his wife Gena Rowlands and good friend Peter Falk, is not unlike many of the modern pictures about the illusion of white picket fences and neatly trimmed gardens. His film, however, is not as vague - it centers ar...( read more)ound the struggles of being a wife, a host, and a woman. In the film, Rowlands' character descends deeper and deeper into an unflinching madness as she continues to fail to meet expectations. The film suggests, however, that she's simply a victim, and her husband is no less crazy than she is.

    Nick (Peter Falk) and Mabel (Gena Rowlands) Longhetti, a lower-middle-class Italian family, have three children in a small house in suburban Los Angeles. Nick feeds the family with his work as a construction worker, however the more he buddies up with his friends at work the more he ignores his wife and children. When he's home, he can be rather unpleasant and demanding - he's so bossy, in fact, that at times it seems like he's a father telling his daughter what to do when he's addressing Mabel. Because of her stress and the hectic environment, Mabel is a desperate neurotic with a severe lack of confidence. The harder she tries to be "normal", the further she alienates herself from everybody.

    One day, Nick comes home from work with some friends. Mabel, attempting to be a good host, offers them spaghetti for breakfast. She tries too hard to please the workers, however, and makes all of her guests uncomfortable. Although Nick tries to get her to relax, she eventually goes as far as attempting to dance with an uneasy stranger. Nick loses it, telling Mabel that she's had her fun, and his coworkers quietly leave. It doesn't even appear that Mabel knows what she's done wrong.

    Mabel is a woman without any privacy. Her home is so small that she sleeps on a sofa in the dining room, and although her bathroom has a sign that reads "private" on the door, it doesn't stop people from knocking on it. Eventually, as Mabel descends further into a wreck, she's admitted into an institution. Nick, alone with the kids, tries to be a good father - but we watch as he, with good intentions, does everything wrong. He takes his children out of class to let them play, and lets them take big sips out of his beer. It's clear that they need their mother. When she returns, however, it turns out that her problems weren't the "quick fix" the doctor would have led Nick to believe.

    "A Woman Under the Influence" is brilliant for the wonderful performances and it's great use of cinema verite filmmaking that allows the camera to linger long after most directors would cut. The spaghetti scene in particular is perhaps one of the most unnerving you'll ever see, and it's such a car wreck that you're begging for it to end. No doubt it's the feeling that the people at the table would have had.

    This is the first i've seen of Cassavetes, often considered the most important of all American independent filmmakers, and I found it enormously moving. A tad overlong, but absolutely a wonderful film that everyone should see.
  • emerson17
    December 2, 2008
    emerson17
    In everydaylife, I mean, not in the movies, lunacy tends to erase the borders. The borders we try to maintain in order to define such things as sanity or reality. I've been impressed by the framing work here; the foreheads are cut by the frame. I'm pretty sure this has some metap...( read more)horical value and If I had a paper to write about this for school, I would surely develop that point :-)
    Oh, and, yes, I should mention the spectacular and incredibly convincing acting performances as well.
  • DrBenway
    April 25, 2008
    DrBenway
    This film seemed to rip my guts out. Gena Rowlands teetering into insanity is definitely one for the books and is forceful and disturbing.

    Free-formed filmmaking approach that depends on its' actors than a script or camera work. This film influenced other indie filmmakers to...( read more) do it themselves. Not necessarily for the casual filmgoer, you can decide if that's you.
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  • brocksssssnyder
    September 10, 2009
    brocksssssnyder
    not hard to watch at all, despite what i've heard. both peter falk and gena rowlands are too insane to turn down.
  • AD917
    September 2, 2009
    AD917
    A feminist film that doesn?t sink to a simple minded ?woman good, man bad? message. Gena Rowlands is devastatingly effective in the titular role.
  • Epicouros
    April 2, 2009
    Epicouros
    the old god Cssavetes
  • rafaelagb
    March 11, 2009
    rafaelagb
    For the great, misplaced love of Cassavetes characters.
  • wuasaby
    December 6, 2008
    wuasaby
    no fancy editing, just the best character I have ever seen, delivered by the best acting I have ever seen. It has got to be the most accurate portrayal of the struggle a family goes through when one of its members has some kind of mental problem. Including the feeling of loneline...( read more)ss that person feels, the frustration, the anger... What a brilliant masterpiece. This is definitely what Cinema is about.

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Critic Reviews

January 1, 2000
Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times

Perhaps the greatest of Cassavetes' films. full review

View more A Woman Under the Influence reviews at RottenTomatoes.com

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