Thehibikiew Not even bad in a good way

Solidrariol Am I Missing Something?

Catangro After playing with our expectations, this turns out to be a very different sort of film.

Billy Ollie Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

edwagreen While very much clichéd, I thought I was going to see at first a prelude to 1979's "An Unmarried Woman" with Jill Clayburgh. The film begins with a professor of English leaving his wife and she struggles to understand the breakup.Men are not portrayed well here. There is the professor who has a 19 year old on the side, the suave employment agency guy who has more than hiring on his mind and the Monte Markham character, the guy who falls for our heroine only for us to discover that he is married. The only redeeming man of quality is veteran Melvyn Douglas, as an aged grocery store owner who knows the score having experienced life to it fullest with his now deceased wife. When Trish Van Devere thinks he has died, her visit to the morgue is memorable as we see the cold side of the attendant. To him, a dead person is rather a stiff.As the brassy blond experienced with divorce with her divorce league, Janet Leigh steals every scene she is in.The modern day ending of achieving freedom is overstated here.

sol1218 ***SPOILERS*** Very much like the 1978 women's movie "An Unmarried Woman" released six years later even down to it's dramatic and unexpected freeze frame ending "One is a Lonely Number" has to do with a young womens abandonment by her husband and being forced to go out in a world and face situations that she's lest prepared for.Right out of the blue English collage professor James Brower, Paul Jenkins, tells his startled young wife Aimee, Trish Van Devere, that he's divorcing her. The reason for James leaving Aimee is mental cruelty which was in her, thinking it's a piece of junk, throwing out a his rare 1st edition copy of "Paradise Lost" by John Milton! It later turns out that James left Aimee for totally different reasons; His affair with his cute and blond teenage secretary at the collage he teaches in.Out in the cold with bills piling up to the ceiling Aimee gets a job as a lifeguard at a local community swimming pool in San Francisco. Not at first realizing what she got involved in with the sneering and hot in the pants employment agent Sherman Cooke, Jonathan Lippe, Aimee is later shocked to find Sherman in the ladies shower, fully clothes, demanding that she take a cold shower together with him! It's as if by just doing his job, finding a job for Aimee, Sherman want's to bed her down as a reward! Threatened by an outraged Aimee to have him reported to the police for attempted rape as well as being spotted in the ladies shower by two unexpected visitors, a woman and her young daughter, Sherman makes a hasty retreat never to be seen again in the film.Aimee eventually gets her head together with the help of fellow divorcées Gert Meredith, Janet Leigh, and Madge Frazier, Jane Elliot, who've had experience in failed marriages with Madge going through her first and Gert her fifth divorce. Aimee also gets the very needed advice and attention that she so desperately seeking from a very unexpected source; The kind and friendly fruit & vegetable man Joseph Provo, Melvyn Douglas. It was Mr Provo, a widower after 39 years of being happily married, who set Aimee straight to what life, as well as good and cheap grade "A" #1 produce, is all about.Aimee does find out that not every man who's interested in her sexually and romantically is also interested in marrying her. This comes as a big surprise to Aimee when her new boyfriend Howard "The Duck" Carpenter, Monte Markham, reveals to her after a roll in the hay, or the sack, that he's actually married and happily at that! Becoming more and more independent and confident in herself Aimee eventually loses interest in her ex-husband James who's affair with his 19 year old secretary had already gone bust. This leads James, now feeling like a first class jerk, to drop his filing for divorce against Aimee wanting her back despite all the damage he caused her! But by then Aimee being a free soul with all the eligible and married men in town wanting to date and go out with her she tells James to go take a hike and get himself lost in the woods! Now free and full of confidence in both herself and her ability to overcome any obstacle put in her path Aimee now confronts the challenge that's been haunting her all throughout the movie! And Aimee, true to form, passes it with flying colors!

MarieGabrielle However, I preferred this film. While it is a bit disjointed, and certainly the subject matter these days in not novel, it addresses the individual issues of divorce and abandonment.Some critics have dismissed this as a "woman's movie"...wow. Women today are a larger sector of the audience. Not sure what archaic demographic that critique is utilizing.At any rate, Trish Van Devere gives an understated performance as a newly single San Francisco woman, attempting to restructure her life. Jane Leigh is amusing in a nice cameo as a vindictive divorcée, she looks amazing for age 45, and gives a fun performance.Melvyn Douglas also has a cameo as resident grocer, Mr. Provo. He takes Van Devere to an outdoor play, and she breaks down as she finally realizes her four year marriage is over for good.Never an easy issue, divorce is painful and personal, if you watch this, and then ten years later, watch it again, you may feel differently. Recommended. 7/10.

Tirelli Some movies present such basic, utterly simple storylines, that the only thing that can actually save them from turning into mediocre flicks is how they are executed. And that's the case of Rebecca Morris' 'One Is A Lonely Number'. It's the simple tale of a recently divorced woman, Aimee, who slowly discovers how to get along with her life, growing through pain, loss, heartache and the dealing of loneliness. If you think it's familiar, you're right. The same subject has been brought up oh so many times throughout the last three decades - mostly on campy tearjerkers - but they can't be compared with this one.Trish Van Devere ~ Day Of The Dolphin, etc... ~ surrenders completely to her role, and gives the performance of a life time. Melvyn Douglas... well, what can I say about him?Plus, bits from a very sarcastic, cynical Janet Leigh, fresh from such flops as 'Hello Down There'.It's all delivered to you from a gentle, bittersweet point of view. The pacing is perfect, for it gives the film a reality touch. The music... well, four words for you... Michel Legrand... Bossa Nova.And some scenes deserve special attention... Trish's reaction to King Lear, and sobbing on Douglas' shoulders. Trish's seduction of Monte Markham and finally... the last scene...Have a box of Kleenex handy. Do yourself that favor... :)