Kritiken

It's an inexhaustibly rich film. Downgraded by some devotees of the director as a merely commercial assignment, it in fact represents a fertile cross-fusion of generic movie elements with the singularity of Cassavetes's style and approach.

Cassavetes's hard-nosed metaphysics is matched by the intimate ferocity of the odd couple; scenes of Phil's proud, vain defiance and Gloria's resentment could have been played, with the same dialogue, by Rowlands and an adult actor as the domestic combat of lovers. No other director married to his leading lady has ever filmed her face to such self-deprecating effect as did Cassavetes: the creases on Rowlands's forehead and the crags beneath her eyes betray her hard years with him.