Portnoy's Complaint (1972)

A young Jewish bachelor (Richard Benjamin) is obsessed with sex. During his sessions with his psychiatrist (D.P. Barnes), he relates his sexual issues as well as his relationship with his mother (Lee Grant) and his mistress (Karen Black). Based on the best selling novel by Philip Roth and directed by screenwriter Ernest Lehman (NORTH BY NORTHWEST) in his only directorial effort. When published in 1969, Roth's novel was a literary sensation with its graphic passages on masturbation. I never understood its acclaim (yes, I've read it) and this film version is an out and out disaster. I don't know if I'd call the book unfilmable but Lehman doesn't translate the book's satirical frame of mind into a coherent structure. There's also the miscasting. Both Lee Grant as the mother and Karen Black as the mistress are so wrong for their parts. Black is unpleasantly shrewish while Grant botches the Jewish mother stereotype (Shelley Winters could have aced it effortlessly). With Jill Clayburgh, Jeannie Berlin, Kevin Conway and Lewis J. Stadlen.