August 23, 1970 | 3 weeks at #1
Seen by Martin before? No
What did I expect? Had not heard of it. Something comic and strident, perhaps.
What did I get? Now here is a truly interesting movie. Based on a 1967 novel by Sue Kaufman (anyone out there read it?) and never for a moment losing the ineffable stamp of an adaptation, Diary of a Mad Housewife is that rare “issue movie” that manages to transcend its issue. At once broadly satirical and finely true-to-life, the movie sometimes makes nonsense of its ostensible message — that the problem with Tina Balser’s life is the men in it — and frequently smuggles in oodles of resonant footage involving authentic human beings. No mean feat.
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