A Woman Under the Influence (1974)

Directed by John Cassavetes.
Starring Peter Falk and Gena Rowlands.

In a Nutshell: A housewife’s mental illness threatens her family’s welfare.

Plenty of movies out there, devoid of any violent or sexually graphic content (unlike Man Bites Dog), that make me extremely uncomfortable. A Woman Under the Influence, John Cassavetes’ mediation on the struggle to maintain marital serenity, is one of those movies. The woman in question, Gena Rowlands as homemaker Mabel Longhetti, is a victim of trying too hard to please her husband, Nick (Peter Falk, at his most un-Columbo). She’s too eager to please at social functions, laughs too loud and too long, cries with a misplaced passion and generally gives off an uncomfortable vibe. But she’s never this way because she wants to be; she only wants to please her affable, if a tad loutish husband who she loves dearly. She is a victim of society’s pigeonholing and can never cram her psyche into the traditional housewife role. It does not take long for Nick to get fed up with her manic behavior and ends up sending her to a mental institution. It is then that Nick becomes an even worse caretaker, exploding with anger and sharing beers with his kids at the beach. He too feels the strain of being shoved into society’s trapping as assured and always in control.

When I say the film made me uneasy is no knock on its quality. But two and a half hours of yelling and dissolving marriage is just exhausting. But the movie does showcase Cassavetes’ strength as an actor’s director. Gena Rowlands gives a forcefully high-strung performance as Mabel, giving her eccentricity and irritating tics a sad, personal touch. Her inability to realize herself in her suffocating, suburban world begins shattering her psyche, and Rowlands can channel rage, desperation and faux joy in one look like no other. Peter Falk’s Nick is just as dysfunctional and well-meaning, relying mostly on violence and excessive shouting to restore order. But his outbursts are of the same nature as Mabel’s; an attempt to reinforce a notion of tradition that plagues American households.

Cassavetes has presented a searing, though overdone look at the American family. It’s overdone only in the sense that no real people could sustain the amount of dysfunctional energy that Nick and Mabel can. Or at least I hope not. But both characters are so well developed that the film could run on its own spontaneity and the lead performances boldly dive into the abyss that has defined Nick and Mabel’s lives. It’s as touching as it is nauseating to watch these two wrestle with their societal roles as their sanity is threatened. Both mean well, but the influence of our position in this culture can drive any well-meaning individual to madness. In the end, as painful as it was to watch, A Woman Under the Influence expertly defines the struggle between who we are and who we should be.