Diane

I read review after review waiting for someone to mention the scene where she goes and shoots heroin. I thought I had fallen asleep and missed an arc so I went back and watched it again. Sorry, this just made no sense to me.

Mary Kay Place (Diane) gives a performance so real that we think we know her, have likely run into her at the grocery store or maybe met her at a local civic group. In any case we'd walk by this 'unremarkable' older woman with barely a glance. Her life is easy, hard, stressful, comfortable -- filled with things that matter only to her and her close family and friends. She is "every-woman" and yet Place inhabits Diane so well that we are drawn into the depth of her 'everyday' life and realize how extraordinary an ordinary life really is. Kent Jones does a brilliant humanistic directing job. A group of veteran actors (Joyce Van Patten and Estelle Parsons to name two) well known from stage and television, fill out a great ensemble cast. Thank you Kent Jones. A true pleasure.

The case is that it seemed that it was going to be great, I had it all, crisis, script, lower classes, independent cinema, but then when I saw it, I finished it, because it talks about ending it, but the movie doesn't catch me Because I am not excited because it does not transmit anything to me, because the actors to begin with, do not believe it, I do not see them internally suffer the script, only play a role. Let's not talk about lighting, it is independent cinema, and it is not used. The director has missed an opportunity to do a great work, to reach our hearts. The film has no heart, no rhythm, no tempo. He tells us a social script, to use, but misused. I think there are much better films of this type

"Diane" (2018 release; 95 min.) brings the story of Diane. As the movie opens, we see her dozing off while visiting a family member in the hospital (whom we later learn is Donna, who is struck with cancer(. Diane then drops off some chicken at another family member in need. Then there is Brian, Diane's drug-addicted son who claims it's bronchitis. And on and on. Diane never seems to have time for herself. At this point we are 10 min. into the movie, but to tell you more of the plot would spoil your viewing experience, you'll just have to see for yourself how it all plays out. Couple of comments: this is the fiction movie debut from writer-director Kent Jones, whose prior work was all in documentaries, including the excellent "Hitchcock/Truffaut" a few years ago. Here he brings the story of Diane and her family and friends, all doing the bet they can, in Pittsfield, Massachusetts. Even though there is the troubled son, it needs to be made clear that this is NOT a drug-addiction movie like the recent "Beautiful Boy" and "Ben Is Back". Brian's struggles are just a parallel story to many other struggles that we watch play out. At time this is a seemingly mundane people, but in the end we get a rich and nuanced character study that is deeply moving and affecting. Veteran actress Mary Kay Place shines in the title role. "Diane" premiered at last year's Tribeca film festival to positive acclaim. Now, a year later, it finally made its way to my art-house theater here in Cincinnati. The Saturday early evening screening where I saw this at was attended so-so (exactly 10 people, including myself). Maybe this movie can find a wider audience as it is released on other platforms. If you are in the mood for a rich and nuance character study of an "ordinary" woman, I'd readily recommend you check this out, be it in theater (if you can), on VOD, or eventually on DVD/Blu-ray.

Unusual movie, it's like you meet a stranger (woman) and she let you know of the kind of (tough) life is is having at the moment. Quite well done, but the movie ends unexpectedly!

Quantifies why I like TV series better than movies, although this was so strung out that it could have turned into a very boring mini series. Things move slow, very slow. The other reviewers seem to be familiar with the writer, director and perhaps even the camera man and sing praises for this movie. Nothing much happens to this widow except she gets together with cousins, one dies and a couple aunts who also die, her son is addicted to drugs then finds Jesus. She really doesn't have a lot to say about any of it, except in a diary we see her write entries in. I really like Mary Kay Place and she's been in a lot of things besides Mary Hartman, repeat, and she seems comfortable in this role but then it wasn't much of stretch for her talent.

There aren't exactly an excess of roles for women over 40 in Hollywood. There certainly aren't a lot of lead roles for an actress like Mary Kay Place who's made a career out of stealing the show in supporting roles over her enviable career, but with Diane, Place finally gets her chance to shine and, as expected, she's more than up for the challenge. This is a different role for Place who tends to specialize in kooky or eccentric types and there's nothing terribly noteworthy about Diane. She's a widowed woman of a certain age who spends all her days and nights taking care of other people - her friends, her family, and the homeless. When she's given a moment of peace, all she can think about is how everyone she's loved has (or will soon be) died. What could have possibly led to her being so selfless? Diane is a small film in scope and budget, but it's a small story about a small person - the kind of person we probably wouldn't give a passing glance to on the street. She looks just like any other woman in her area and age range. What could be so special about her? This film tells us - quite a lot. Diane got me thinking about how little we really know about everyone we encounter on a day to day basis and how everyone is fighting their own battles that they don't always tell us about.

DIANE is an very realistically observed, emotionally nuanced drama of sixty-something Boomer women living in small-town up-upstate New York, Western Massachusetts, or thereabouts, and centered around an Oscar calibre performance by Mary Kay Place. Although the viewer may be captivated by the spell of the film's flow of personal and interpersonal detail, a thematic core may be abstracted from it; and some nice formal flourishes enrich the film. Thematically, the film illuminates the individual and group altruism of its world of Sixtyish Boomer women, a kind of unspoken sisterhood of social nurture. Formally, the emotional density of its many micro dramas is periodically offset by lovely scenes of calm country highway driving. Commercially, one fears that the film may suffer from a lack of conventional "hooks," but it's appeal -- word of it accurately and well spread -- should be intense for the sizable audience of Boomer women, not to mention alert demographically diverse cinophiles.

I could not wait for this dire journey into misery to finish and when it did, I realised it had taken quite a toll on me. It had sunk me to depths of sadness I haven't been to for some time, because it just presented life as nothing more than a penance, and being human as shameful and anathema. It pretended that it was ok to be hurtful to the people closest to you for no good reason, and to never make any effort to be simply nice. If I lived in this community, where people do good deeds for the less fortunate, but are not able to speak nicely to one another at any time I'#d probably make sure I sneaked some valium into the drinks of every single person. Yes I reluctantly admit Mary Kay Place acted very well indeed but I suspect that';s because she is that kind of miserable person who feels weighted down by life, and so she acts it very well. I shall now try hard to forget what I watched and how it made me feel and move onto a better story.

Small town New England, where the skies are grey, trees cast skeleton shadows, and folks drive endlessly to nowhere. A group of baby booming women gather for spirited, neighbourly warmth, as the ravages of time loom ominously on their well lived lives. Their men, the ones that are left, shuffle in the background. Diane has things to do, it says so in long hand on her daily reminder note. But her mundane errands belie a couple of hardships: dealing with an adult son with a history of addiction, and a dying cousin hanging on to a lifelong grudge. As Diane, Mary Kay Place strikes a nuanced balance of vulnerable strength, a woman tough enough to bully her offspring into sobriety, good-hearted enough to bring true friendships to many, and broken enough to dance drunk solo in front of a jukebox. Filled with excellent turns from a bunch of Golden Girls - actors who cut their chops back on the sets of "Love American Style" and "Mannix" - this film brings enough community spirit to perfectly complement Place's solo tour de force. Friends start to drop. Diane continues her lonely drives. The clouds never break. Nothing much changes, and it's all in Place's stony face. Not for everyone, "Diane" is a moody chunk of cinema which is oh so rewarding for those willing to stick with it..