The defence The Sentimental Softie
“Sincerity is not manipulation.”
The film risks embarrassment to make emotion communal, and that openness is harder than fashionable detachment.
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Diary of a Mad Housewife
Comedy · Drama · 1970
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.
Movie details
Diary of a Mad Housewife
“It can happen to any married woman anywhere, anytime...it happened to Tina.”
1970 Comedy · Drama 1h 35m
Critical arithmetic
One number, for now.
Scores change. Arguments endure.
TMDB
6.2 / 10
Community rating
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.
CriticWise case file
What this film says about your taste.
Not a recommendation score. A measure of how closely the film’s taste signals resemble yours.
The archetype split
Who fights over Diary of a Mad Housewife?
For the defence
The Sentimental Softie
“You came to feel something, and you will.”
Read their case For the prosecution
The Cool Ironist
“Feeling things is a little embarrassing.”
Read their objectionThe split comes from the same five-axis model used by the test, not audience ratings or review sentiment.
Taste neighbourhood
Nearby on the taste map.
TMDB supplies the candidates. CriticWise reorders them by craft, strangeness, prestige, emotion, and pace.
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On the Rocks
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Faced with sudden doubts about her marriage, a young New York mother teams up with her larger-than-life playboy father to tail her husband.
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Suburban dad Craig falls hard for his charismatic new neighbor Austin, and his attempts to make an adult male friend threatens to ruin both of their lives.
Kinds of Kindness
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A triptych fable following a man without choice who tries to take control of his own life; a policeman who is alarmed that his wife who was missing-at-sea has returned and seems a different person; and a woman determined to find a specific someone with a special ability, who is destined to become a prodigious spiritual leader.
Why Did I Get Married?
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Eight married college friends plus one other non-friend (all of whom have achieved middle to upper class economic status) go to Colorado for their annual week-long reunion, but the mood shifts when one couple's infidelity comes to light. As secrets are revealed, each couple begins to question their own relationship.
The Only Living Boy in New York
Drama · 2017
When a young man learns that his overbearing father is having an affair, he tries to stop it, only to be seduced by the older woman as well.
Kramer vs. Kramer
Drama · 1979
Ted Kramer is a career man for whom his work comes before his family. His wife Joanna cannot take this anymore, so she decides to leave him. Ted is now faced with the tasks of housekeeping and taking care of himself and their young son Billy.
Addicted
Drama · 2014
A gallerist risks her family and flourishing career when she enters into an affair with a talented painter and slowly loses control of her life.
A Thousand and One
Drama · 2023
Struggling but unapologetically living on her own terms, Inez is moving from shelter to shelter in mid-1990s New York City. With her 6-year-old son Terry in foster care and unable to leave him again, she kidnaps him so they can build their life together. As the years go by, their family grows and Terry becomes a smart yet quiet teenager, but the secret that has defined their lives threatens to destroy the home they have so improbably built.
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Names above the title
The people responsible.
Cast & crew
Directed by
Frank Perry
Written by
Eleanor Perry
Carrie Snodgress
Tina Balser
Richard Benjamin
Jonathan Balser
Frank Langella
George Prager
L
Lorraine Cullen
Sylvie Balser
F
Frannie Michel
Liz Balser
L
Lee Addoms
Mrs. Prinz
P
Peter Dohanos
Samuel Keefer
Court is in session
Put Diary of a Mad Housewife on trial.
Two incompatible taste archetypes. One film. Read the arguments, then issue a completely binding cultural ruling.
The prosecution The Cool Ironist
“The strings are showing.”
Every cue tells you exactly what to feel and when, leaving sentiment to do the work character should have done.