Film

Diary of a Mad Housewife (1970)

Director: Frank Perry

Movie review

From Time Out Film Guide

Perry and his scriptwriter-wife Eleanor have consistently made provocative, offbeat films about mental and spiritual reawakening (until the disastrous Mommie Dearest, that is). Some of them, like the allegorical The Swimmer, have been intriguing catastrophes; this is one of the more successful. Bored New York housewife Snodgress tires of smug, over-ambitious husband Benjamin and his persistent nagging, and decides to gamble on an affair with narcissistic writer Langella, only to find that relationship equally dissatisfying. Often very funny in its acerbic swipes at American success-orientated society (as revealed at a camp art preview and an unsuccessful party), imaginatively scripted and acted (Benjamin is superbly repellent), it's an entertaining satire that disappoints only in the stereotypically limited choices it offers to the woman.

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