An Unmarried Woman Reviews

AN UNMARRIED WOMAN became a beacon of the women's movement in the 1970s, though its tentative feminism seems tame by today's standards. Jill Clayburgh, in the title role, learns to take control of her own life after her schlump of a husband (beautifully played by Michael Murphy) leaves her for a girl he met in Bloomingdale's. Set in the New York milieus Mazursky knows so well, AN UNMARRIED WOMAN has some great insights and is superbly acted by all involved. The director populates the film with his usual, very real and attractive modern characters, but you may think it cops out in the end, when Clayburgh falls into the arms of romantic SoHo painter Alan Bates. Nonetheless, Mazursky spares nobody and nothing with his comic darts. Some of the most hysterically funny scenes occur when Clayburgh and her three pals (Quinn, Bishop, and Miller) have regular luncheons in which they let down their hair and frankly talk about their sex lives.