Mabel (Gena Rowlands) is a woman with a husband, Nick (Peter Falk), who loves her and three children that need her. More than that she has a number of mannerisms that labels her as odd, and at some times dangerous as people are unable to predict her decisions.
A Woman Under the Influence is about this relationship between Mabel, Nick and their family as they try to figure out how this all works out.
Since the beginning of December, 2012, I’ve been working my way through Cassavetes work and I’ve found it difficult to relate to a lot of it. While I don’t believe this film is much different I feel a level of interest much higher than the rest of his films from the perspective that it’s easy to take in this film as a performance piece. With all his other films thusfar he’s been seeking solace from the audience looking to convey some philosophy (and/or point) across that’s easily lost in his odd style of presentation. Here those style factors are tempered and we’re allowed to be able to access these great performances by Gena Rowlands and Peter Falk as they try to navigate love, life and all the weird stuff that’s taking place along the way.
When the film opens to us seeing Nick out at work being called to an emergency job, Mabel sending her children off to their grandmother (Lady Rowlands) so that the two of them can have a special evening together. We see Nick conflicted with himself about calling his wife, not calling her, to tell her than he can’t make it, that she’s going to have to spend the evening alone. He uses reasons that we as an audience may not believe, and he eventually calls her anyways, but since we get moments like that we can see that the passion and love is there and there’s immediately stakes setup for the tumultuous ride of the couple’s relationship that we’re about to see.
Where this film falters, and I still am unsure as to whether this is my fault as a viewer or Cassavetes’ fault as a writer/director, is that it didn’t quite ease us into Mabel’s insanity smoothly enough. When we got to the scene where it was obvious that something was wrong it felt almost out of left field and I started to question if something got lost in the edit. Before that she had odd spells and we saw the father of another comment on her being dangerous but I didn’t quite see it. Maybe it’s because I saw the film through the perspective of Nick, maybe that’s the point. I was viewing Mabel from the point of view that I loved her and didn’t want to see Ber oddities as negatives but rather character quirks that made Ber adorable and an interesting person to be around.
My real complaint about this film is in it’s story. Just like all of Cassavetes previous films, I don’t believe it makes any real point. While it’s not necessary for any film to even bother making a point it definitely leaves a sour taste in the viewer’s mouth when it’s all over and they can’t find anything to actually say as to the theme(s) and/or idea(s) that the film is trying to portray. The only kind of movie which is allowed to get away with that (and they’re lauded when they bother to do more than ignore it) are generic modern day big budget action films (e.g. The Expendables 2 or The Avengers). If there was a point, other than us getting a day in the life of this odd dysfunctional unit of a family, then I completely missed it.
Was this film perfect? I don’t believe so. Was it a good watch? Yes, when focusing on performances.