Gena Rowlands passed away in August of this year, and it struck me at the time that I’d only seen one film she’d made with Cassavetes: A Woman Under the Influence. I don’t remember much about it after nearly 30 years, other than bits of Rowland’s searing and uncomfortable portrayal of a woman completely falling apart, and the typically warm Peter Falk playing a jerk.
Saw Gloria last evening at a local film club and was impressed by its energy and inventiveness. The plot is ridiculously absurd–a mob accountant has turned informant and has a book recording the dirt about his employers and their businesses. Immediately before getting wacked by a team of goombahs with shotguns and bad suits his wife hands off their 6-year-old son to their neighbor Gloria, giving him the book and telling him to guard it.
What follows is two hours of deleriously entertaining action and farce. When presented with 6-year old Phil, Gloria quips that “I hate kids, and especially yours,” but given the seriousness of the situation she takes him in tow. After some initial rough going between Gloria and her young Puerto Rican charge (played with cute adroitness by John Adames) her maternal instinct is activated and Gloria becomes Dirty Harry, blowing away and confronting gangsters with aplomb and sassy attitude. Despite the silly plot and at times unintentional humor of the action, Rowlands commands the screen and is completely believable. At times she and Adames are like Gable and Davis in a screwball romantic comedy, and the gangsters are Keystone Cops. What fun!
Cassavetes’ use of cruddy late 70s New York is very appealing, and made me nostalgic for the gritty run-down town I used to visit into the late 80s before Times Square became tragically Disney-fied and antiseptic. The sappy and overwrought ending was delicious and there wasn’t a dry eye in the house.
I must further explore Cassavetes’ films and Rowlands’ catalog. There were some die-hard fans of their work, both French and English, at the showing last night, and their enthusiasm was infectious.
Mysterium Coniunctionis 