If you've seen other films directed by Cassavetes, you know what to expect. It's loosier and goosier than earlier films of his, but still fails to engage, and isn't particularly funny, either. A movie with Cassavetes as a louse in a tuxedo and Rowlands reprising her amiable-madwoman act from _A Woman Under the Influence_ produced by Menahem Golan and Yoram Globus should have been so much better. In fact, any description of characters or events herein make this sound more interesting than it is

Cassavetes, the man who knows how to film from his heart.

Interesting character study with the theme of "love" and what self obsessed lengths people will go to find where they belong.

Feels rather long and rambling but it manages to be an interesting if not entirely coherent look at love and madness.

#385

Forget "Big Trouble." THIS is Cassavetes' swan song. It is also his best film.

The magic is gone, but at least it's not as embarrassing as his last one, Big Trouble. Like in Gloria, the little children here don't speak at all like children (who calls their mother "mother" for god's sake?) which helps screw up the realism. Still by general standards it's an interesting picture.

419

One of Cassavetes' finest works. He's not afraid to let scenes breathe, or put us in the middle of a situation without explaining it (and when the pieces do come together it feels entirely organic). The experimental tweaks with the soundtrack and the fantasy sequences are unexpected, but fresh and invigorating: not an interference with reality, but an enhancement of it. Though it's a bit of a retread for Gena Rowlands, we forgive her because she does it so brilliantly.

# 436

A tough and brutal portrayal of raw emotion. The small revelations and slow disintegrations and reintegrations of the characters are wonderfully done, and, while it's a bit exhausting to watch it all happen, it manages to never get overwhelming for the audience, which is quite a feat.

377

Cassavetes has done better (this is very, very good, but I have such high expectations of the man); Al Ruban, however, blows minds asunder with the kind of cinematography envisaged from a late '70s Whiskey commercial.