Rachel, Rachel (1968)

Still living at home with her mother (Kate Harrington), a 35 year old virgin (Joanne Woodward) lives a life of quiet desperation in a small town. When a visiting high school teacher (James Olson) comes to town to visit his parents, she loses her virginity but the chance for happiness she hoped for doesn't come. Based on the novel A JEST OF GOD by Margaret Laurence and directed by Paul Newman. Tedious to the extreme, this is like a Tennessee Williams play but without the poetry. The film has lots of unnecessary flashbacks with Rachel as a little girl (played by Newman and Woodward's daughter, Nell Potts) to pad it out and annoying little voice overs by Woodward and fantasy sequences that don't ring true. There is one marvelous sequence however. A religious revival meeting lead by Geraldine Fitzgerald that perfectly captures the feverishness of such an even as well as Woodward's growing claustrophobia. The unobtrusive score is by Jerome Moross. Inexplicably admired in its day (it still has its admirers), it even got a best picture nomination. With Estelle Parsons, Frank Corsaro, Terry Kiser and Donald Moffat.