Smart Review

But A Woman Under the Influence (1974) is his masterwork. It features one of the most devastating and mesmerizing performances captured on film, by John's real-life wife Gena Rowlands. She is Mabel, an eccentric wife and mother slipping into madness before the eyes of her husband (played perfectly by Peter Falk). There have been many takes on insanity in narrative film, but none as unvarnished, unsentimental or potent. Cassavetes' style of dialogue and trust in character over plot machinations pay off in a big way, with a nonjudgmental portrait of the fragile complexity of the mind and the incapability of love to heal all wounds. If you only ever see one Cassavetes film, this is the one.

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