Diario di una casalinga inquieta

If one were to make a list of the All-time Most Annoying Movie Characters, it would properly include only those whom we can enjoy as they annoy. They're the ones who cause you to smile as you squirm, not those who make you reach for the remote. Right alongside DeNiro's Rupert Pupkin, and Honey, as played by Sandy Dennis (Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf), ranks Richard Benjamin as Jonathan Balser. His unctuous whine is the best reason to watch this period piece. Carrie Snodgress, as the brunt of his annoying personality, also does a fine job. Frank Langella, playing her lover, is a bit too unlikeable, but it only serves to heighten our empathy for the unfortunate heroine.

I've often wondered if the lady of the title is crazy-mad,or angry-mad.Probably some of both.Benjamin's husband is one of the truly most detestable characters of domestic drama.Selfish,overbearing,pompous,ego-centric,domineering,callous,insensitiv e-and those are his good qualities.In all fairness,I don't think that Richard Benjamin likes him either.He's not a character,he's a caricature.And Langella's lover is every bit as much a swine.Oh,granted,he's sexy and sensuous,but he's every bit as much a villain-and equally immature.Maybe things were different back then,but Tina's decision to stick around after the nonsense her husband pulled,seen in a 90's perspective,makes one wonder as to any masochistic tendencies in her makeup.

This highly entertaining and memorable film provides a glimpse into a New York of not so long ago that now exists only in memory. But Diary of a Mad Housewife ultimately succeeds on the strength of its actors, particularly Snodgress, who plays a Smith graduate-turned prisoner of a Central Park West apartment inhabited by her overbearing, pitifully ambitious husband and spoiled daughters. Her performance is somehow flat and anemic but compelling at the same time--a combination that seems to have been consciously emulated by Chloe Sevigny in The Last Days of Disco.

Bejamin is perfectly cast as the insufferable husband, adenoidally petulant and demanding. When Snodgress's patience is finally exhausted, she takes up with Langella, a glowering animal presence as a bad-boy writer whose selfishness, it turns out, rivals and even exceeds Benjamin's.

The husband and wife represent two people whose lack of use for their education has led them astray: Snodgress finds herself in a state of frustration with the humiliations of her housewifely duties, and Benjamin, unappreciated in his office, comes up with ill-fated schemes for self-expression and social advancement.

All in all, the film brings The Feminine Mystique to life in unexpectedly original and diverting ways.

There are two different versions of this movie, one for t.v. and one on video. They're both the same length, but they are incredibly different in tone. On t.v., the movie is about a harried housewife who has a brief (mostly offscreen) affair as part of her attempt to make sense of her life. On video, the movie is a dark portrayal of an illicit affair, emphasizing the sexual dysfunctions of everyone involved. If one reads the book, it is clear that both versions are unsatisfying--the best solution is a "Director's Cut," like the one I made on my own, that incorporates all the scenes and brings the running time up to a tolerable 2 hrs even. This makes it an almost perfect adaptation of the book, and a very fulfilling movie. Here's hoping someone, someday, has the sense to release this great old film on DVD this way.

Career-defining roles for Carrie Snodgrass, Richard Benjamin and Frank Langella, as well as a wonderful blend of humor and drama.

And the little brats are just great: "Why, even the salad isn't normal--mooky oranges and cut up plants!"

Carrie Snodgress is wistful, sad, conflicted, fed-up and funny playing harried NYC housewife on the verge of collapse; Richard Benjamin is her anal-retentive husband; and Frank Langella is her uncommitted lover. From Sue Kaufman's book, one of the funniest satiric novels of its era, comes this sometimes-surreal jumble by Frank Perry, who is so concerned with making a monster out of Benjamin's Jonathan that he in turn makes Snodgress' Tina look a little pathetic. The character was feistier in the book, with a (self-contained) deadpan sense of humor that Perry isn't quite able to replicate on film. This Tina has her moments--throwing her ruined Thanksgiving platter against the wall, berating Jonathan for making fun of her in front of the kids--and Snodgress is terrific, really the only reason to see the film. She overcomes the knockabout structure and obvious swipes at indifferent urbanites and makes something touching out of the material. I first saw this on television and admired a couple of scenes with Snodgress and her headstrong daughters (a beauty involved smacking her kid when she deserved it, and then going to apologize). I later rented the video and found a number of those scenes missing. Turns out they had been added to the network version to pad the picture's length from other cuts--mostly sexual ones involving Langella. This is a first: I liked the discards much better than what ended up in the actual movie. **1/2 from ****