The performances of Shirley MacLaine and Kenneth Mars are far too realistic with the script by Frank D. Gilroy so true to life, and not taking place on the sunny side of the street. This Brooklyn based couple, only hearing from each other what they want to hear, probably still love each other but their life is so routine and with their home as their castle which locks them in from the outside world, they truly can't stand to look at each other sometimes.
If life inside their apartment isn't all sunshine and roses, it's worse than fertilizer outside. Friends and acquaintances are obviously just as (or more) unhappy, and even a trip to an antique shop leads to words between MacLaine and the clerk (over the clerk's nosy observations and inability to hear what MacLaine is telling her) and later a visit to the hospital over the cat bite that MacLaine has been avoiding having treated. With screaming kids and other unhappy patients in earshot of the nurses harping at MacLaine, it's no wonder she gets upset.
What this film exposes is not just the loneliness of people in a big city but the way they feel separated from a humanity will they don't feel really cares to listen, and is too busy trying to come up with advice to give on a situation they don't have all the information on. The story seems simple, but presented in a very complex manner that digs into a lot of important issues still relevant. Sada Thompson and Jack Somack have an important lengthy scene as friends MacLaine visits who are just as troubled. This is without a doubt one of the most surprisingly touching performances of MacLaine's career, and you just want someone to come up and tell her that everything is going to be okay, even though you know it won't be.
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