Review of Play It As It Lays

Nominally framed as a "Hollywood novel," Joan Didion's 'Play It As It Lays' (1970) is, in essence, an existentialist tale concerning a fragile but perceptive young woman battling alienation, aimlessness, and despair as she tries to navigate the spiritual and moral wasteland of modern America. Not long after the book was published—and garnered rave reviews—Didion and her husband, John Gregory Dunne, struck a production deal with director/producer Frank Perry ('The Swimmer'; 'Diary of a Mad Housewife') to make a film version. Already experienced screenwriters, Didion and Dunne ('Panic in Needle Park') did the adaptation themselves, thus assuring a high degree of fidelity to the literary text. Also fortuitous was the casting of the prodigiously talented by shamefully underrated Tuesday Weld ('Pretty Poison') as Didion's protagonist, Maria (pronounced Mir-Eye-a) Wyeth Lang, and Anthony Perkins ('Psycho'; 'Pretty Poison') as B.Z., a suicidal, closeted-gay movie producer who is Maria's only close friend. (Tammy Grimes plays Helene, B.Z.'s faux wife.) As she recuperates in a psychiatric hospital after a nervous breakdown, Maria, a washed-up 30-year-old movie actress, surveys her life to date in a fragmented series of flashbacks: her childhood in rural Nevada; her stint as a model in New York City; her semi-successful acting career; her failed marriage to a hotshot film director named Carter Lang (Adam Rourke)— which produced a brained-damaged daughter—numerous casual affairs; aimless wanderings; an abortion; the suicide by overdose of her friend, B.Z. Though almost unremittingly bleak, 'Play It As It Lays' does end on a note of modest hope. Brought to the edge of despair by the stark realization that life conceals a terrifying emptiness at its core, Maria nonetheless opts to live: "Why not?" she somewhat arbitrarily concludes. Expertly scripted and beautifully shot on location in L.A., Malibu, and the Mojave Desert by Jordan Cronenweth ('Brewster McCloud'), 'Play It As It Lays' features bravura acting by Tuesday Weld and Tony Perkins. Indeed, Weld's stunning performance earned her a Golden Globe nomination but the AAMPAS ignored her at Oscar time because the film failed commercially and subsequently sank like a rock. Sometimes shown on television (most recently on the Sundance Channel) 'Play It As It Lays' has never made it onto VHS or DVD: a real travesty that demands redress.