It's been a couple of days since my last post, and in the interim I've mostly just been sick (and I ventured into work for a half day, as well) but I've also been watching Twin Peaks. I got through the first season (8 episodes) in about a day and am LOVING it. Kyle MacLachlan, especially, is magnificent. I have decided not to include TV series, after all. I'm doing so well that I can do this list with just movies. (Note to everyone: You need to help keep me on track!)
I actually just had a very short conversation about this movie with my friend Jeff over a Facebook status about how good Jill Clayburgh is. Coincidentally, it was right near the top of my Netflix queue, ever since I placed a couple of Mazursky films in there (there was a retrospective at the Traverse City Film Festival last year, but none of his movies were playing at times conducive to seeing them), so I just quick moved one up to the top since I had one coming, anyway.
One of my prevailing thoughts while watching the movie was how it seemed almost like the original Sex and the City. And I mean that in the best possible way. (Mostly in premise, and not in terribleness like the second movie...) Jill Clayburgh plays a happily married woman whose husband divorces her for a younger woman, and part of the solace she finds, post-separation, comes from her "club" that consists of her three female friends and her. They're not all SatC single, but each one has their idiosyncrasy and their baggage, and they all help each other through their problems. (Without any of the ridiculousness.)
I can understand what I've heard about this film that, for its time, it was pretty groundbreaking. Divorce was nothing new of course, but how Clayburgh's Erica finds strength after it was probably very ahead of its time. Her relationship with her daughter (they openly chat about abortion, bisexuality, marijuana, and mom's sex life among other things), she sees a therapist (some of my favorite parts of the movie, though they aren't at all the most interesting), and she follows her suggestion to re-start her sex life. Erica discovers the joy of a little NSA sex to help her "get back in the game". It's sexy without being raunchy and voyeuristic.
Funnily enough, as I was writing this review, I've talked myself into a better score than I was planning to give it, and I realized that I enjoyed it even more than I'd thought.
Score: 8.5/10
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