Customize Consent Preferences

We use cookies to help you navigate efficiently and perform certain functions. You will find detailed information about all cookies under each consent category below.

The cookies that are categorized as "Necessary" are stored on your browser as they are essential for enabling the basic functionalities of the site. ... 

Always Active

Necessary cookies are required to enable the basic features of this site, such as providing secure log-in or adjusting your consent preferences. These cookies do not store any personally identifiable data.

No cookies to display.

Functional cookies help perform certain functionalities like sharing the content of the website on social media platforms, collecting feedback, and other third-party features.

No cookies to display.

Analytical cookies are used to understand how visitors interact with the website. These cookies help provide information on metrics such as the number of visitors, bounce rate, traffic source, etc.

No cookies to display.

Performance cookies are used to understand and analyze the key performance indexes of the website which helps in delivering a better user experience for the visitors.

No cookies to display.

Advertisement cookies are used to provide visitors with customized advertisements based on the pages you visited previously and to analyze the effectiveness of the ad campaigns.

No cookies to display.

Minnie & Moskowitz Review

Released in 1971, John Cassavetes’ Minnie & Moskowitz is billed as a hilarious romantic comedy that shows a lighter side to the notoriously spiky director. It may well do, but 40 years on it’s hard to know what the average rom-com audience will make of Minnie, barbed as it is with attempted suicide, domestic violence and kidnapping.

Seymour Cassel, who hasn’t changed much since this film came out, plays Seymour Moskowitz, a lovable loser and car enthusiast who has no ambition beyond working as a parking valet. It’s a sign of just how good he is in this role that he can make Moskowitz sympathetic despite the fact that he’s also a slightly deranged creep.

Moskowitz first crosses paths with Minnie (Gena Rowlands) on what has to be one of the roughest days of her life. Abandoned in a restaurant parking lot after the worst lunch date in history, Moskowitz offers her a ride back to work. By ‘offers her a ride’ I mean takes her out for hot dogs, gets offended when she won’t eat, threatens her when she won’t get in his truck (“I swear I’ll bust ya!”) and forcibly restrains her when she tries to get out again. Minnie, who has just turned 40 and been dumped by her violent, married boyfriend (an uncredited Cassavetes) decides to take a chance on the passionate, impoverished Moskowitz and love blooms.

For all her financial security, beauty and career success, needy and insecure Minnie may not be the world’s greatest catch herself so it’s no great head-scratcher that she falls for a guy who declares “I could look at you for 500 years and still find you exciting”. Cassavetes had a rare talent for creating rounded, believable characters and Minnie is a master class in ensemble film making. The dialogue is a treat, even if it is delivered at full volume (Cassavetes did, after all, say that “silence is death”) and each vignette and cameo appearance is a gem.

It may have been a feel-good film 40 years ago, but it’s unlikely that anyone who found PS I Love You or Sleepless in Seattle enjoyable will get a warm fuzzy off Minnie & Moskowitz’s premise that loneliness holds the door open for love. Everyone else will wonder how much more interesting the Bridget Jones franchise would have been if one of the suitors had been a bum with a large moustache and a hyperactivity disorder.

Clare Moody

Share this!

Comments

[wpdevart_facebook_comment curent_url="https://werk.re/2011/03/28/minnie-moskowitz-review/" order_type="social" title_text="" title_text_color="#000000" title_text_font_size="0" title_text_font_famely="Roboto Mono, monospace" title_text_position="left" width="100%" bg_color="#d4d4d4" animation_effect="random" count_of_comments="5" ]