Rating: 
Summary: Cassavettes ? The Anti-Hollywood
Review: A man goes into a big, strange house with his family and friends. He is armed with script and camera, and proceeds to create a milestone work of American cinema - the key film of the 1970s. Above all else, "A Woman Under the Influence" is Anti-Hollywood, Anti-Establishment, Anti-Film. 1970's Hollywood may have defined itself with films like Godfather, Rocky, Annie Hall, and Deer Hunter - but real, unpredictable, chaotic life was Cassavettes' territory. Fact is, Hollywood will never be ready for uninhibited Mabel and her much crazier husband Nick. Nutty as she is, Mabel/Cassavettes does nothing but tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but. Hollywood at best, tells persuasive lies. So..., to get Hollywood ready for the Gospel of Cassavettes, the first thing that must happen is to banish the entire FX community; ship `em to Alcatraz where they can make blockbuster cartoons for each other. Second - the writers, directors and producers of said cartoons can go Vegas and try to "leave." Those who remain will be entrusted with putting complex human beings who inhabit interesting lives and situations on the screen - not "role models" who traipse through neatly-plotted, highly-improbable, beautifully photographed, committee-designed plots. Get my point? By the way, Gena Rowlands in "Influence" gives one of the finest performances of the sound era. See this film. See it now. Right now.
Rating:
Summary: Cassavettes ¿ The Anti-Hollywood
Review: A man goes into a big, strange house with his family and friends. He is armed with script and camera, and proceeds to create a milestone work of American cinema - the key film of the 1970s. Above all else, "A Woman Under the Influence" is Anti-Hollywood, Anti-Establishment, Anti-Film. 1970's Hollywood may have defined itself with films like Godfather, Rocky, Annie Hall, and Deer Hunter - but real, unpredictable, chaotic life was Cassavettes' territory. Fact is, Hollywood will never be ready for uninhibited Mabel and her much crazier husband Nick. Nutty as she is, Mabel/Cassavettes does nothing but tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but. Hollywood at best, tells persuasive lies. So..., to get Hollywood ready for the Gospel of Cassavettes, the first thing that must happen is to banish the entire FX community; ship 'em to Alcatraz where they can make blockbuster cartoons for each other. Second - the writers, directors and producers of said cartoons can go Vegas and try to "leave." Those who remain will be entrusted with putting complex human beings who inhabit interesting lives and situations on the screen - not "role models" who traipse through neatly-plotted, highly-improbable, beautifully photographed, committee-designed plots. Get my point? By the way, Gena Rowlands in "Influence" gives one of the finest performances of the sound era. See this film. See it now. Right now.
Rating: 
Summary: Under-written, over-indulgent
Review: Although Gena Rowland's portrayal of a mentally fragile woman is highly creative and physical, the movie itself strikes me as more an exercise of techniques rather than a fully-developed drama. Hence, her character's continuous on-screen behavioral dysfunction becomes uninvolving and numbing after a while. Should we sympathize with her or with the people who have to endure her behavior? We never know, because we are given far too few clues about her illness -- Was there any recent tragedy in the family? Has she been abused? Has there been any financial or social pressure? I know that a Cassavetes film is apt to abandon all conventionality regarding style and content, but surely a little bit of background information about her life and her character would not compromise the director's unique vision. Further hampering our understanding is the fact that all the characters never talk about anything of importance; I would have thought having such a peculiar woman in the household would spark some really interesting conversations. Perhaps everyone tries to pretend she is alright? Perhaps the film tries to show the lack of communication that might have resulted in the woman's desperate need for inner peace? But the film does not make clear about that. At least in FACES, an earlier film that is also about unhappy housewives, there is a clearer path towards an existential theme revolving domestic life as well as our society at large. In this film, we rarely see any glimpse about anything beyond Rowland's self-absorbed, peculiar physical state. Only at the very end of the film, when her husband shows a drastic change of behavior, do we get an inking of the cause of her predicament (but even so, he may be just reacting, rather than contributing, to the problem); only then does the film achieves its great emotional power.
Rating:
Summary: Gena Rowlands is our greatest star
Review: Any movie written and directed by John Cassavetes requires intelligence on the part of the viewer because he never made things easy for us. He was truthful and that truth sometimes manifested in high drama, and at other times in the minute details of everyday life. Gena Rowlands is the perfect actress to accomplish this range of acting demands without "acting" all over the place. She is heartbreaking as she desperately begs her children to tell them what they really think of her, and truly funny serving her husband's co-workers at an (Peter Falk) impromptu breakfast gathering. This is Cassavetes and Rowlands at their best, complimented by wonderful performances by Falk and all of the supporting players. It is the first movie you should own if you are a serious collector of films that matter. Gena is golden.
Rating:
Summary: Hands down, one of the best films ever made.
Review: Cassavettes crowning achievement, this film represents the most stunning achievement in cinema. You will never look at Gena Rowlands in the same light again. This film elevates her above humanity... she is film goddess.
Rating:
Summary: GENA ROWLANDS BEST PERFORMANCE EVER!!!!!!!
Review: Director John Cassavetes paints a heart breaking portrait of a mother who has a nervous breakdown and has to under go treatment. Gena Rowlands, in a Golden Globe winning performance,brilliantly portrays Mabel with such reality that it's hard to tell wether or not she's really acting or not. If for no other reason one should watch this film for Gena Rowland's magnificent performance. This is one of the few times where a husband and wife team on a movie actually paid off for a film.
2 1974 ACADEMY AWARD NOMINATIONS:
BEST DIRECTOR-JOHN CASSAVETES
BEST ACTRESS-GENA ROWLANDS
Rating:
Summary: painful and beautiful
Review: First a note about 2 reviewers comments. The idea that Peter Falk ruins this movie is absurd. He's very, very good in it. Of course, it's really Gena Rowlands' movie. This is probably her best performance, though that's a nearly useless comment as she's unbelievably good in almost everything, particularly cassavetes movies. The reviewer who thinks the movie is missing something because you're given no motivation for mabel's behavior is (at best) missing the point(s). For one thing, she's schizophrenic, isn't she? There doesn't have to be A REASON, does there? Half a dozen POSSIBLE reasons are brought up in the movie anyway, mostly dealing with her relationships with her parents and mother-in-law, society in general, and the difficulty of being an emotionally honest person and an adult/parent/spouse at the same time. If you're into Cassavetes (or people) you won't be worried about such things anyway. You'll be too busy feeling, laughing, crying, tearing your hair out, etc. Lovely. One of my very favorites.
Rating:
Summary: Behind-the-scenes info for Cass buffs
Review: For a fascinating behind-the-scenes info about A Woman Under the Influence and a list of books about Cassavetes' work, go to Ray Carney's website dedicated to John Cassavetes (found through any search engine).
Rating: 
Summary: Emotional powerhouse
Review: Gena Rowland's performance is flawless. That alone makes the film worth watching. I took a star off due to Peter Falk's annoying performance as the husband. He was o.k.---but got on my nerves after awhile. But back to Gena---how on earth did she lose the Academy Award that year? The Academy needs to give her an honorary Oscar for all of her amazing performances. SHE DESERVES IT!!!!!
Rating:
Summary: You just gotta love Gena!
Review: Gena Rowlands is just absolutely wonderful and touching as the blue collar, suburban housewife, Mabel, steadily losing her grip on life and reality. She tries desparately to connect with the people around her, only baffling and embarrassing them and her husband, skillfully played by Peter Falk, who loves her tremendously but cannot understand her as much as he tries. The scene in the film where Falk invites his work buddies home for a spaghetti dinner best illustrates this dilemma. While viewing the video of this film I just wrote his character off as just another stupid, ethnic type, who was just too uneducated and ignorant to be sensitive to his wife increasingly erratic and needy behavior. But I now realize that such a patronizing attitude on my part is totally wrong: mental illness cuts through all ethnic, racial, and economic backgrounds. People of all levels, especially those closest, would be at a loss knowing how best to help this special person in our lives who is slipping away from us into darkness. It may be revelation to some that it is Mabel's three young children who find it the easiest to understand and relate to her plight. They just love their mother and accept her the way she is, without any judgment on their parts, and Mabel responds in kind. It is their influence that will help determine whether she recovers.John Casavettes directs "A Woman Under the Influence" with a naturalness (a Casavettes hallmark) that seems as if he were making a documentary film about his own family. As many probably know, Gena Rowlands was married to Casavettes and he utilized her in many of his films, all to his and his audience's great advantage.
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