An Unmarried Woman

Erica has it all, a happy marriage to a sensitive husband, an intelligent daughter, a Manhattan flat, and a good job at a contemporary art gallery. Things are going so swimmingly in fact that she engages in her own rendition of Swan Lake in her skivvies while alone in her bedroom. Then after meeting her husband for lunch, he informs her on the sidewalk that he has fallen in love with another woman. Thoroughly dejected, Erica enters the single world and on the advice of her therapist, begins to date and gradually finds strength in her own independence. Paul Mazursky's "An Unmarried Woman", one of the pivotal woman's lib films of the 1970s, is a crowning achievement for the work of Jill Clayburgh, who is truly remarkable in the title role. Running the gamut in terms of emotions, Clayburgh perfectly projects joy, frustration, anger, bewilderment, and a slew of others as she begins her transition into single life. The performances of the men are excellent as well: Michael Murphy as her weak but loving husband, Cliff Gorman as the chauvinistic swinger whom she has a fling with, and Alan Bates as the ideal artist whom she falls in love with. Mazursky's film must have been refreshing for audiences in 1978, but it is due to Clayburgh's incredible and engaging command of the screen that makes this film work.