The challenge is this: watching a film and having no essential story to rely upon. In Love Streams, John Cassevetes sets out to direct a film that challenges the audience in this exact way, and since this film is one of his later works, it is done with a lifetime of experience in making such films. While typical movie making allows the audience to subsume the characters into a story, here we are dealing with a director who does not privilege a story over the characters. To be plain, the characters are not part of a story, they are the story.
In Love Streams, Robert Harmon (Cassavetes himself) plays a drunk and a womanizer. When Sarah Lawson (Gena Rowlands) shows up in a taxi at Robert's house, she is greeted with hugs and kisses by Robert. Are they ex-lovers? Robert's son is also present and watches the two interact. He later asks Robert if he loves Sarah, to which Robert replies, "Not like you're thinking." It feels like the greeting is just an act. Later still, Sarah mentions "their" father. So Robert and Sarah are brother and sister. We are still not sure that he cares for her until Sarah gets sick and Robert takes care of her as though she is more important than anything else in the world. When Sarah gets better, she decides to leave and find her dream. In the end, Robert lets her go, unsure that she will be okay. Will he lapse back into his former lifestyle? The beauty is this: to find out, we would have to follow the character.
IMDb rates this film 7.9 out of 10
Film 101 gives this film 4 out of 5 stars
A selection of other films directed by Cassavetes:
Shadows, Faces, Husbands, Gloria, A Woman under the Influence, The Killing of a Chinese Bookie.
