Madhouse 1990

Mark Bannister, a skilled stockbroker, and his wife Jessie, a TV reporter/anchorwoman, enjoy a sunlit, contented California life that feels almost scripted. Their quiet routine is jolted when Mark’s cousin Fred and his pregnant wife Bernice fly in from New Jersey, bringing a chaotic energy that unsettles the perfect order of the Bannisters’ home. The couple’s first days in town are further disrupted by Bernice’s quarrelsome cat, Scruffy, and a small fortune of misadventures that test the couple’s patience and their marriage.

Mark hands Fred a few hundred dollars to help him explore the city, intending some downtime with Jessie. But Jessie’s sister, Claudia, arrives after a bitter quarrel with her rich Middle Eastern husband, Kaddir, who has just cut off her credit cards. Claudia’s presence intensifies the household’s already fraying nerves, as does Bernice’s extended stay after a fall on the way to the car. Bernice’s doctor, Dr. Penix, orders her to remain at home until the baby’s birth, elongating the visit and amplifying the tensions.

At a bar, Mark tries to nudge Fred toward independence, urging him to quit being Bernice’s pet. Fred, however, takes the nudging to heart a little too literally and leaves to “find himself,” setting up a series of choices that ripple through the entire household. Meanwhile, next door, Dale, a carpenter, constructs a device to keep Bernice comfortable in bed all day, a plan that backfires as Bernice grows more demanding and theatrical, insisting on attention, elaborate funerals for Scruffy, and even funerals for a cat that seems to come back to life.

Claudia’s teenage son, Jonathan, also moves in after Kaddir ejects him from the house. Jessie tries to manipulate the situation by enlisting Dale to seduce Claudia, hoping to nudge Claudia out of the house, but the plan backfires. A dramatic turn occurs when Mark and Jessie accidentally burn down Dale’s villa. With insurance unlikely to cover a rebuild for three months, Dale, along with his two teens—C.K. and Katy—moves in to avoid an arson lawsuit, effectively turning the Bannister home into a revolving door of relatives and unexpected guests. Mark also helps Jonathan land a job as a mailroom clerk at his office, a small victory amid the growing chaos.

As days pass, the pressure mounts, and the Bannisters feel increasingly squeezed from every side. When Mark misses a workday, his friend and colleague Wes checks in and urges him to hold on a bit longer, hinting at a business deal that could salvage their professional standing. At work, a box from Bogotá arrives containing cocaine—intended for Jonathan, though the motive behind this delivery remains murky. The boss, Bob Grindle, orders Mark to push a set of stocks through amid a looming scandal, but Mark forgets to act before leaving for the day, leaving the company exposed to upheaval.

Trouble erupts when the police arrive, attracted by the cocaine and Scruffy’s odd behavior, and a drug bust spirals out of control. In the chaos, the Bannisters’ house is destroyed, a shakeup filmed live by Jessie on her TV program, pushing her to a breaking point and spiraling toward a mental breakdown on air. Cornered by circumstances and facing ruin, Mark and Jessie resolve to abandon the house and leave town, seeking new beginnings away from the mounting mess.

The next day brings another shocking twist: a recording from Dr. Penix reveals Bernice was never actually pregnant. Jessie forces Bernice to come clean, humiliating Claudia by wrecking Claudia’s clothes, and taking matters into their own hands with Dale’s belongings as well. Mark responds with a show of calculated aggression, using an electric saw on Dale, and the explosives of Jonathan’s cocaine-laden bag explode when he tries to flee in Dale’s loaner Lotus. The couple’s plan to burn the house to keep their guests away is thwarted by the arrival of the police, who apologize and reveal that the only physical evidence—Scruffy—has disappeared. A turn of luck arrives when Grindle unpacks the fallout of the scandal; he positions himself for a financial windfall and a potential promotion, with Claudia taking an opportunistic step toward Grindle and Dale flirting with one of the officers, much to C.K.’s dismay.

Scruffy unexpectedly returns from the police evidence room and insists on staying with Mark and Jessie. Bernice and Fred depart, with Fred asserting more control over the situation than before. Just when the couple seems ready to settle into a more conventional life, a final domestic act—Mark smashing the unreliable toilet with a sledgehammer—caps their ongoing commitment to reclaiming normalcy.

Jessie’s dramatic on-air outburst earns her a standalone TV show, and she and Mark relocate to a larger Malibu home, starting anew. They even manage a moment of contentment, until the inevitable sight of visiting parents interrupts that peace. Yet the couple keeps moving forward, toward a life that feels earned, not given, with resilience framed by humor, chaos, and a shared sense of defiant hope.