Opening Night

...expands the envelope of realism as it mounts a very strange character study of a theatrical star who resists her own age by struggling against the script of the menopausal play she is appearing in.

It is both a psychological drama of eerie, internal strangeness, and a meditation on the enigma and loneliness of being beautiful.

...tells the story of an alcoholic actress going through the final agony of bottoming out, while surrounded by people whose lives she is making impossible...

Gena Rowlands gives one of her bravest, most startling performances here, waging guerilla combat with the demands of a play she can’t abide, wrestling with demons so real they kick her in the teeth.

The entire movie takes place in the few days prior to the Broadway opening and shows the backstage turmoil of a show about to happen.