The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds (1972) review

American Kitchen Sink "drama" ... except with more rabbit droppings: single mother Beatrice Hunsdorfer (Joanne Woodward) - whose husband walked out on her - lives with her daughters Matilda (Nell Potts) and epileptic Ruth (Roberta Wallach) in a decrepit house along with non-verbal elderly woman Nanny (Judith Lowry) as their "tenant": Beatrice claims she wants to 'bring them together' but her actions do nothing but divide them, particularly when precocious Matilda's experiment, which involves marigolds exposed to radiation, wins the Science Fair.  Alvin Sargent adapted this for the screen from the Pulitzer Prize-winning play by Paul Zindel but it just feels like a watered-down (and repetitive) "take" on a Tennessee Williams work, and mostly exists to indulge in Beatrice's constant rambling, bullying and hysterical behavior: sure, she's "motherly" with Ruth's "episodes," but significantly less so the rest of the movie ... and if she wasn't already a repulsive enough figure in the third act, she makes a scene at the school embarrassing her delicate younger child (and kills her beloved pet bunny).  Both kids do a fantastic job - which shouldn't be a surprise, since their real-life parents are actors and actresses - but the tragedy is that only one of their characters has the possibility of escaping....