Joan Didion's novel "Play It as It Lays" is more interesting than it is entertaining and Frank Perry's 1973 movie adaptation shares this dynamic. Making one very hesitant to recommend either for anyone but your most inquisitive friends.
This is not really a feminist story although one of its two principle subjects could be considered an item on the feminist agenda, exploring the mysteries of female discontent. That subject differs somewhat from both the mysteries of male discontent and the mysteries of human discontent; the latter being the second of the film's subjects.
Tuesday Weld plays Maria, a not particularly successful film actress who finds herself essentially over-the-hill at 30ish. This is a uniquely feminist issue since the unfair fact is that males tend to have a much longer Hollywood shelf life. Although Hollywood likes to view itself as unique in most respects, it is pretty much the same thing throughout society; probably an evolutionary wiring type thing that makes middle age men like JV cheerleaders.
Combined with the fact that relative to boys and young men, girls and young women focus a lot more of their daily energy toward getting people (especially males) to respond to them. Since males enjoy responding to them everybody is happy, at least everybody but those women who men do not strongly respond to. This is where Hollywood comes in because an older woman's level of resentment is highly correlated with how much power she once enjoyed in the attraction arena. So much of Maria's identity was tied up in this dynamic that she is empty without it and unable to find an adequate substitute.
A more standard secondary theme is that of the young girl from the heartlands (in this case Montana where things are real) going to the illusionary world of Hollywood film-making (insert "Mulholland Drive" here). And throw in the power brokering of the Hollywood movers and shakers.
But "Play It as It Lays" is a complex story and also includes a more universal subject. Maria's Fitzgerald-like crack-up is paralleled by the Samual Clemens-like disillusionment of her best friend B. Z. (Anthony Perkins). He is a professionally successful producer who has begun looking around at this late point in his life and failing to find a meaning to existence. Maria is also catching on to this idea and it is not helping either of them find motivation. The title "Play It as It Lays" sums up the film's take on the human condition.
Like Kilgore Trout's existential answer to the universal question "why are we born only to suffer and die", Maria avoids B.Z. fate with the only answer possible: "why not".
This is a cynical film about people going to pieces, unable to find substitutes for essential things/beliefs that they have lost. Weld is probably the best actress of her generation but the role is so flat that it is not a particularly good showcase for her talent. That said, it would have been interesting to see Elizabeth Hartman's take on the character. Still Weld and Perkins manage to make the viewer care about their characters.
If you like "Play It as It Lays" you might want to check out Faye Dunaway in "Puzzle of a Downfall Child", a film made at approximately the same time with a similar story and an identical tone.
Then again, what do I know? I'm only a child.
This is not really a feminist story although one of its two principle subjects could be considered an item on the feminist agenda, exploring the mysteries of female discontent. That subject differs somewhat from both the mysteries of male discontent and the mysteries of human discontent; the latter being the second of the film's subjects.
Tuesday Weld plays Maria, a not particularly successful film actress who finds herself essentially over-the-hill at 30ish. This is a uniquely feminist issue since the unfair fact is that males tend to have a much longer Hollywood shelf life. Although Hollywood likes to view itself as unique in most respects, it is pretty much the same thing throughout society; probably an evolutionary wiring type thing that makes middle age men like JV cheerleaders.
Combined with the fact that relative to boys and young men, girls and young women focus a lot more of their daily energy toward getting people (especially males) to respond to them. Since males enjoy responding to them everybody is happy, at least everybody but those women who men do not strongly respond to. This is where Hollywood comes in because an older woman's level of resentment is highly correlated with how much power she once enjoyed in the attraction arena. So much of Maria's identity was tied up in this dynamic that she is empty without it and unable to find an adequate substitute.
A more standard secondary theme is that of the young girl from the heartlands (in this case Montana where things are real) going to the illusionary world of Hollywood film-making (insert "Mulholland Drive" here). And throw in the power brokering of the Hollywood movers and shakers.
But "Play It as It Lays" is a complex story and also includes a more universal subject. Maria's Fitzgerald-like crack-up is paralleled by the Samual Clemens-like disillusionment of her best friend B. Z. (Anthony Perkins). He is a professionally successful producer who has begun looking around at this late point in his life and failing to find a meaning to existence. Maria is also catching on to this idea and it is not helping either of them find motivation. The title "Play It as It Lays" sums up the film's take on the human condition.
Like Kilgore Trout's existential answer to the universal question "why are we born only to suffer and die", Maria avoids B.Z. fate with the only answer possible: "why not".
This is a cynical film about people going to pieces, unable to find substitutes for essential things/beliefs that they have lost. Weld is probably the best actress of her generation but the role is so flat that it is not a particularly good showcase for her talent. That said, it would have been interesting to see Elizabeth Hartman's take on the character. Still Weld and Perkins manage to make the viewer care about their characters.
If you like "Play It as It Lays" you might want to check out Faye Dunaway in "Puzzle of a Downfall Child", a film made at approximately the same time with a similar story and an identical tone.
Then again, what do I know? I'm only a child.