An Unmarried Woman

Erica Benton is in a seemingly happy marriage to Martin, a successful businessman. They live together with their teenage daughter Patti in an upscale Upper East Side apartment. Martin, however, has been having a year-long affair with a much younger woman; when he confesses to Erica that he loves his mistress and wants to marry her, Erica is devastated, and Martin moves out.

With the help of Patti, her circle of close friends, and a therapist, Erica slowly comes to terms with the divorce and begins to get her life back on track. She reluctantly tries dating again, but after Martin's betrayal and a disastrous blind date is even warier of ever finding a "good" man again. Her mistrust of men threatens her relationship with Patti, as she takes out her frustrations on Patti's boyfriend, Phil. Out of desperation, Erica sleeps with Charlie, an obnoxious, chauvinistic co-worker, but does not find the experience fulfilling.

As she grows more accustomed to her new life, she meets Saul, an abstract painter, and begins a relationship with him. Both value their independence and so have a difficult time adjusting to domestic life; when Patti meets Saul, she is initially hostile, believing Erica is trying to bring him in to replace Martin, which Saul assures Patti he does not want to do. Saul tries to convince Erica to come with him to his home in Vermont for the summer, where he spends five months every year with his children, but she refuses, not wishing to leave her daughter and her life behind for so long.

After a few tense meetings, Martin and Erica begin to act cordially towards each other, only for Martin to reveal that his girlfriend has left him and he wants Erica back. Erica rebuffs him.

The abstract expressionist paintings in the film were created by artist Paul Jenkins, who taught Alan Bates his painting technique for his acting role.[3]

Paul Mazursky began writing the script in 1976 after interviewing several different women about their thoughts on marriage and independence. He initially offered the role of Erica to Jane Fonda, who passed to star in Julia. Mazursky also considered Barbra Streisand for the lead but did not hear back from her agent. Finally, Jill Clayburgh was considered without an audition after Mazursky saw her in a New York play. At thirty two years old, Clayburgh was thought to be too young to play a wife in a 15 year marriage with a teenage daughter, but Clayburgh returned to Mazursky's office having styled herself in fashions indicative of an older woman and secured the part.

Filming began in the spring of 1977 in New York City with the main locations being Manhattan's Upper East Side and the SoHo district. Clayburgh worked the entire shoot without a day off, as her character was written into every scene of a film that was on a tight budget.

Anthony Hopkins was given the role of Saul but turned it down because the character doesn't show up until past the midway point of the script. British actor Alan Bates, whom Mazursky had always admired and who had never appeared in an American film, was given the part. Bates had some misgivings because he did not want to leave his dying father in England, but Mazursky assured him that he would be given seven days to be with his father in case of a tragic event. Bates conceded and his father passed away after he returned home.

It was nominated for three Academy Awards including Best Picture, Best Actress (Clayburgh) and Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen. Mazursky's screenplay won awards from the New York Film Critics Circle and the Los Angeles Film Critics Association.

Clayburgh won the award for Best Actress at the 1978 Cannes Film Festival.[4]

The film was also nominated for several 1978 New York Film Critics Circle Awards, including Best Film, Best Direction, and Best Actress (Clayburgh).[5]

The film is recognized by American Film Institute in these lists:

• 2006: AFI's 100 Years...100 Cheers – Nominated[6]

Vincent Canby in The New York Times wrote "Miss Clayburgh is nothing less than extraordinary in what is the performance of the year to date. In her we see intelligence battling feeling – reason backed against the wall by pushy needs."[7]

Pauline Kael in The New Yorker wrote:

An Unmarried Woman may give Mazursky the popular success that his films Blume in Love, Harry and Tonto and Next Stop, Greenwich Village should have given him – Erica, the heroine, sleeps in a T-shirt and bikini panties. There are so few movies that deal with recognizable people that this detail alone is enough to pick up one's spirits... Jill Clayburgh has a cracked, warbly voice – a modern polluted-city huskiness... When Erica's life falls apart and her reactions go out of control, Clayburgh's floating, not-quite-sure, not-quite-here quality is just right.[8]

As of January 2022, An Unmarried Woman holds a rating of 90% on Rotten Tomatoes based on twenty-nine reviews. The site's consensus states: "Jill Clayburgh is wondrous as a woman who loses her marriage -- only to find herself -- in this acutely observed and lived-in portrait of New York City life."[9]

• An Unmarried Woman at IMDb
• An Unmarried Woman at Rotten Tomatoes
• An Unmarried Woman Overview
• Vincent Canby Review
• An Unmarried Woman: The Business of Being a Woman an essay by Angelica Jade Bastién at the Criterion Collection