Mary Kay Place Gives Career Best with Mostly Female Cast in Diane

Caregivers understand wholeheartedly the sacrifices one makes in order to keep their loved ones safe and healthy.  But, it comes with a price. A price that can result in loneliness, isolation and exhaustion.  Diane (Mary Kay Place) knows this all too well.  She takes care of everyone but herself.

Conversations with her closest friend Bobby (Andrea Martin) ultimately range from commiserating about illnesses, deaths and surgeries of friends to her complicated relationship with her drug addicted son, Brian (Jake Lacy).

Brian is selfish, disrespectful and the source of every ounce of anguish and stress that inhabits Diane’s life.  But it’s not all drama and angst.  One of the highlights for sure are in Mary’s  (Estelle Parsons) kitchen where she tells a story about the encyclopedia salesman stopping by the house back in the day. Pure comedy.  Another favorite are all of her scenes with the wonderful Charles Weldon (Tom), one of the few male characters in a predominantly female cast.

Diane expends a crazy amount of energy checking in on her son to make sure that he doesn’t relapse for a third time.  Images of her consistently driving winding roads symbolize all the twists and turns in her life with Brian and her emotions on any given day.  Her attempt at some normality and sanity for herself consists of making lists.

Having been a fan of Mary Kay Place from the Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman days, she proves that those who are brilliant at comedy excel at drama in ways that are unimaginable.  Her portrayal of Diane is raw, gritty and never sprinkled with self-pity, but exuding the resilience that all women embody.  As the Helen Reddy song says, we are strong…we are invincible.  At the end of the day, Diane is a story about love and loss.   Loss of loved ones, loss of self-respect and that nagging question of why am I still here when everyone I loved is gone.

Produced by IFC Films, Diane hits theatres and VOD on March 29th.