A woman finds herself suddenly single after 16 years of marriage when her husband leaves her for a woman he met at Bloomingdale's. The film made Clayburgh into a star and deservedly so. She is simply marvelous as the woman whose secure world is shattered. Murphy is excellent as her weak-willed husband. Bates's character is not well developed, nor is the relationship between him and Clayburgh. In fact, the film works best before he enters the picture, as it focuses on Clayburgh's relationship with her daughter and friends. Mazursky's script incisively explores sexuality and his lively direction makes the film seem fresh even decades later.

Growing up in New York this is a real classic to me. It was filmed within the city, the void of outdoor sets. The acting was superb. The movie is not flawless, however it is perfect in many ways. I also think that the cinematography is overlooked in this film. In the scene when Clayburgh is ice skating at Rockefeller City the camera work was fantastic, capturing her spirit at that moment in a segue where we are lead to believe she is with with her lover. No words were spoken in that scene.Having grew up in this sector of artistic society as a young adult I found dialogue to be be fairly accurate. The life of her husband and hers for 16 years as it contrasts the artistic world she worked in expressed to me that she was never comfortable in the life her marriage provided. The relationship with her daughter also reflects the dominance of her personality in their marriage. The daughter (perhaps unrealistically) seems to deal with the divorce much better than oft portrayed in Hollywood.Lastly, as for the soundtrack (music in the film), it is excellent and truly reflective of the music in and around that community at that time. The McCartney song on the piano was a very nice touch, even though the scene was edited a bit sloppy. I do agree however that the SPICE channel Conti-essentialSax in the love scenes were dripping with Vermont's best, however it does little to detract from this excellent film.

I did not feel pity for a divorcée who still lived as she did when the wealthy husband was still living at home. Like many people stated, let's see a movie where a woman actually had to struggle to pay rent and feed her kid(s) when the man walked out. I can see why the husband wanted a little more out of life while his wife just flitted about town enjoying herself while he worked hard for his family. His wanting a younger woman who was fun was normal while she was too tired for sex most of the time.The therapist only encouraged depravity with the suggestion her client meet and experience as many men as possible. Casual sex did not seem to work for the divorcée so she hooked up with the artist far too quickly and was ready to give up her life for a man she really did not know. Even though the husband wanted to come back, the soon-to-be ex-wife did not think of her life and how she would become one of her pitiful friends. Instead, she was too infatuated with the sexual attention which was detrimental to her daughter.The ending was bunk. I found it rude for the English artist to blithely tell his girlfriend/whatever to take a cab or something to get that huge painting home. She looked ridiculous walking the streets with it and the guy was gone...gone...gone! IMNSO, she should have taken back her husband. So what if he had an affair. How she behaved afterward was no better with bedding her co-worker and then the artist she knew for maybe an hour. All she was going to get as a single mom was a life of degradation.Feminism was to show women to be strong but to not lose our self-respect by giving ourselves to any man who was interested.

What can you say about the 1970's? It was a bleak, dark, pointlessly down decade. Made toward the end of the 70's (in 1978) "An Unmarried Woman" pretty much captures that feeling perfectly. It was bleak, dark and pointless. It begins with a marriage between Erica and Martin (Jill Clayburgh and Michael Murphy) that seems OK on the outside, but you know from the start that there are problems. It spends most of its time watching Erica try to rebuild her life after Martin confesses that he's fallen in love with a younger woman and leaves her, then it ends on a rather pointless note as her new beau (played by Alan Bates) gives her a huge painting that she struggles to carry home. It's needlessly long (and seems longer thanks to a slow script) and - aside from Clayburgh's performance (which was quite good) - does remind me of the '70's (and I'm not just talking about how absolutely and hopelessly dated the movie seems.) Like December 31, 1979 - when you were just glad the decade was over and you could move on to the 80's, even though you had no idea what the 80's would bring - you're just glad this movie comes to an end and you can move on to something else, no matter what it might be. 2/10