[2] It depicts, shot in cinéma vérité-style, the final stages of the disintegrating marriage of a middle-aged couple, played by John Marley and newcomer Lynn Carlin.

Initial critical reception to the film was somewhat polarized, but it went on to gain widespread acclaim, and is now considered one of the most demonstrative and influential works of the New Hollywood movement.

At home, Richard and his wife, Maria, have a conversation about gender politics over dinner that is alternately cold and marked by hysterical laughter.

They briefly touch on their relationship before tensely retiring to separate parts of the house, but, after a bit, Richard finds Maria and tells her that he wants a divorce.

Chet awakens to find Maria unconscious in the bathroom, having attempted suicide by taking an overdose of sleeping pills.

Hypocritically, he becomes furious with Maria for cheating on him, but, worn out after her suicide attempt, she is not intimidated and responds by saying that she hates her life and does not love him.

After she was fired by Altman, Cassavetes cast her in Faces, and her debut performance earned her a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress.

[9] Manny Farber wrote that "Carlin is near perfection, playing the deepest well of unexplored emotions as the wife of a rubber-faced business wow who seems like a detestable ham walk-on until he surprisingly lodges into the film's center for good.

"[10] Paul Schrader, writing for the Los Angeles Free Press, called Faces "a film with a confused on-screen life, but with a rich cocktail party life-span.

"[11] Pauline Kael, however, responded negatively to the film, criticizing the "badly performed" acting and "crudely conceived" scenes.

[12][13] In a retrospective review for Slant Magazine, Jeremiah Kipp wrote: "Cassavetes was interested in actors and their freak-show intensities, and their performances give his films a hyper-real quality.

[15] In 2011, Faces was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".