DIARY OF A MAD HOUSEWIFE - Kino Lorber Review
Posted: Mon Dec 07, 2020 2:27 pm
DIARY OF A MAD HOUSEWIFE
7/10
Kino Lorber has championed a number of movies that have been long unavailable on home video, with a number of them being critically acclaimed films that, years ago, one wouldn't have expected would become difficult to find. Several of these pictures return to circulation this month for the first time since the VHS era, with a pair of films from Frank Perry -- a director who produced a number of films with his then-wife, Eleanor -- among the highlights of Kino Lorber's December slate.
DIARY OF A MAD HOUSEWIFE (95 mins., 1970, R) is a superbly acted movie starring Carrie Snodgress as a put-upon housewife to strenuously obnoxious lawyer Richard Benjamin. We're not just talking about a little annoying -- Benjamin is an absolute monster, with their two young daughters also exhibiting signs of inheriting their father's arrogance. Snodgress' heroine cooks, cleans, polishes, and quietly sneaks off to have an affair with a writer (Frank Langella) she meets at a party -- sadly, he has issues of his own, and uses her for his own ends while she attempts to find an outlet for happiness in the desolate metropolitan hell she's living in.
Eleanor Perry adapted Sue Kaufman's book in a film populated with extremely funny, sad, and cutting moments. It also doesn't develop a really satisfying narrative -- back at the time of its release, it was likely enough for "Diary of a Mad Housewife" to portray Snodgress' character and its surrounding environment without a supporting narrative arc that reaches any kind of resolution. This is one of those "'70s films" that really doesn't go anywhere -- the movie just stops when our heroine's journey is beginning, and there's a kind of repetitiveness to the film, a satirical tartness, without much in the way of sympathy for its inhuman NYC elites. That may well be the point, yet the 95-minute movie ultimately leaves you wanting more in terms of a story.
That said, the performances are outstanding. Snodgress brings a quiet intensity to a woman who's not just subservient to her husband's social climber, managing to get around him in discreet ways. She's superb, and shows evidence why Sylvester Stallone wanted her for Talia Shire's role in "Rocky" that Snodgress unwisely turned down. Langella's part is a fascinating one, his philandering scribe initially offering a seeming oasis for Snodgress while eventually proving to be even more of a jerk than her husband. And speaking of that performance, Benjamin is absolutely brilliant in this picture -- so uppity, mannered and boorish, it's a role that ranks with the all-time awful movie spouses and yet, to Benjamin's credit, he manages to develop a tiny ounce of sympathy in the film's concluding moments once his veneer is broken.
A well-reviewed film from its era, "Diary of a Mad Housewife" never made it to DVD and hasn't been available on home video in decades. Kino Lorber brings the picture to DVD and Blu-Ray this month, the latter offering a fine 1080p (1.85) AVC encoded transfer with mono sound -- there's no score in the movie, just the sound of horrible people interacting with one another. Extras include a bombastic theatrical trailer and commentary with screenwriter Larry Karazwski and historians Howard S. Berger and Steve Mitchell. (Interestingly, though not seen here, a number of discarded scenes from the TV version can be seen on Youtube)
7/10
Kino Lorber has championed a number of movies that have been long unavailable on home video, with a number of them being critically acclaimed films that, years ago, one wouldn't have expected would become difficult to find. Several of these pictures return to circulation this month for the first time since the VHS era, with a pair of films from Frank Perry -- a director who produced a number of films with his then-wife, Eleanor -- among the highlights of Kino Lorber's December slate.
DIARY OF A MAD HOUSEWIFE (95 mins., 1970, R) is a superbly acted movie starring Carrie Snodgress as a put-upon housewife to strenuously obnoxious lawyer Richard Benjamin. We're not just talking about a little annoying -- Benjamin is an absolute monster, with their two young daughters also exhibiting signs of inheriting their father's arrogance. Snodgress' heroine cooks, cleans, polishes, and quietly sneaks off to have an affair with a writer (Frank Langella) she meets at a party -- sadly, he has issues of his own, and uses her for his own ends while she attempts to find an outlet for happiness in the desolate metropolitan hell she's living in.
Eleanor Perry adapted Sue Kaufman's book in a film populated with extremely funny, sad, and cutting moments. It also doesn't develop a really satisfying narrative -- back at the time of its release, it was likely enough for "Diary of a Mad Housewife" to portray Snodgress' character and its surrounding environment without a supporting narrative arc that reaches any kind of resolution. This is one of those "'70s films" that really doesn't go anywhere -- the movie just stops when our heroine's journey is beginning, and there's a kind of repetitiveness to the film, a satirical tartness, without much in the way of sympathy for its inhuman NYC elites. That may well be the point, yet the 95-minute movie ultimately leaves you wanting more in terms of a story.
That said, the performances are outstanding. Snodgress brings a quiet intensity to a woman who's not just subservient to her husband's social climber, managing to get around him in discreet ways. She's superb, and shows evidence why Sylvester Stallone wanted her for Talia Shire's role in "Rocky" that Snodgress unwisely turned down. Langella's part is a fascinating one, his philandering scribe initially offering a seeming oasis for Snodgress while eventually proving to be even more of a jerk than her husband. And speaking of that performance, Benjamin is absolutely brilliant in this picture -- so uppity, mannered and boorish, it's a role that ranks with the all-time awful movie spouses and yet, to Benjamin's credit, he manages to develop a tiny ounce of sympathy in the film's concluding moments once his veneer is broken.
A well-reviewed film from its era, "Diary of a Mad Housewife" never made it to DVD and hasn't been available on home video in decades. Kino Lorber brings the picture to DVD and Blu-Ray this month, the latter offering a fine 1080p (1.85) AVC encoded transfer with mono sound -- there's no score in the movie, just the sound of horrible people interacting with one another. Extras include a bombastic theatrical trailer and commentary with screenwriter Larry Karazwski and historians Howard S. Berger and Steve Mitchell. (Interestingly, though not seen here, a number of discarded scenes from the TV version can be seen on Youtube)