I saw this film years ago when it was new. It was 1978 and I was 20. It didn't especially reach me, though I loved Paul Mazursky's movies, the wondferful Harry And Tonto and the underrated Next Stop, Greenwich Village (I remember Shelley Winters in the latter bringing down the house when I saw it on the big screen).
I wasn't all that fond of Jill Clayburgh, in general, and have never warmed to her, much, despite her obvious acting abilty and photogenic qualities. But this was possibly the best performance of hers I've seen. Was never an Alan Bates fan, at all, not sure why.
At any rate I wanted to comment here, specifically to address the reviewers who say they couldn't relate to this woman emotionally because she was well off and not living in a depressed neighborhood and didn't have three little kids to take care of and no income, etc. These comments made absolutely no sense to me. I'm sure the divorce rate has gone up since this film was made, leaving many more people in the position of having to fend for themselves in this two-income economy.
It's not this film's fault the economy of the US has deteriorated. Yes, even at the time, this was an upper middle class New York woman who had no money worries, and therefore she didn't share a lot with the average woman of 1978.
But maybe take a look at the fact that in 1978, many families were still living on one income. Public college was affordable, food and gas, even rent, were affordable. People didn't travel a whole lot, and many families had one car. People didn't use credit cards very much. The New York subway cost 50 cents.
Why this film had more resonance in 1978 is that divorce was less prevalent then than now. Women were not in the workforce as much. It may seem hard to believe but I remember just a few years before this, women were not allowed to wear pants in some restaurants and hotels. Many universities were not even co-ed.
So here's a woman facing divorce in this very different time, when many women relied on their husbands, and more than that, relied psychologically on the central thing in their lives, home and marriage. I think it was smart of Mazursky to focus on a woman of means, so that the economic issues would not be front-and-center. Instead, this is a woman whose main crisis is the divorce itself, the rejection, the loneliness, the sexual needs, the need to find oneself and rely on oneself. It works particularly because this was a woman who never really had to rely on herself, before.
That type of woman hardly exists any more but the reasons aren't entirely social. We once had an economy that was all about one man making enough to support a family. Many women went straight from home to marriage, from being supported by their father to being supported by their husband. Some never worked a day in their lives (even in not particularly wealthy families) When I was growing up, in the 60s, literally none of the mothers in our working-class neighborhood had a job. Neither did a few wives who had no kids.
By the way, this doesn't mean they were lazy, or even unfulfilled, as being a mother and housewife who took care of ALL the household needs and chores WAS a full-time job. While it's true that many women today would reject that type of life as unfulfilling, I don't think too many would mind being able to live on only one income (either theirs or the husband's). And not all would mind being able to stay at home and raise their children, rather than trying to work and raise children at the same time. It almost seems like some of the reviewers are unconsciously envious of the fact that the Clayburgh character in this film never had to be a working wife and mother.
There was a movie in the 1940s called My Reputation. It was about an upper-middle-class woman (Barbara Stanwyck) dealing with the recent death of her husband. I don't recall thinking it was any less of a movie because the woman wasn't poor or working-class. Similarly, I don't get why so many seem to be coming down on An Unmarried Woman because of the social class or the circumstances of the lead character, as depicted in the film.
