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Diary of a Mad Housewife

1970 · 95 min

A sharp, uncomfortable portrait of a stifling marriage and its corrosive affairs, anchored by a quietly devastating lead performance.

Directed by
Frank Perry
Genres
Comedy, Drama
Tagline
It can happen to any married woman anywhere, anytime...it happened to Tina.
Overview
Tina Balser is a bored New York housewife-mother married to Jonathan, a pompous, social-climbing lawyer who ridicules her in front of their children, criticizing everything she does or wears. She begins an affair with George Prager, a dashing, successful, and blatantly sadistic writer.

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Directed by
Frank Perry
Genres
Comedy, Drama
In your watch list

How it feels

Written by AI. It can be wrong.

Tone
  • melancholicstrength 3 of 3
  • satiricalstrength 2 of 3
  • tensestrength 2 of 3
  • cynicalstrength 2 of 3
Pacing
measured, 2 of 4, from slow-burn to relentless
Attention
engaged, 3 of 4, from background-friendly to demanding
Themes
  • identity
  • isolation
  • betrayal
  • gender
  • family
Places
  • big city
  • home
Era
contemporary
Audience
adult
Form
  • unreliable narrator
Content intensity
  • Gore none
  • Language mild
  • Violence mild
  • Sex strong
All scales, 0 to 10
Scales, 0 to 10
ScaleValue0 to 10
Action1
Horror1
Humour5
Realism8
Romance3
Tension5
Darkness7
Complexity6
Emotional weight8

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Cast

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Streaming data from JustWatch.TMDB

Details

Genres
comedy, drama
Directed by
Frank Perry
Written by
Eleanor Perry
Starring
Carrie Snodgress, Richard Benjamin, Frank Langella, Lorraine Cullen, Frannie Michel, Lee Addoms, Peter Dohanos, Katherine Meskill
Cinematography
Gerald Hirschfeld
Runtime
95 min
Country
United States of America
Languages
English

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