"10"

                            


This week in class we discusses romantic comedies and sex comedies and everything in between. We also saw clips from the movie "10" (1979) with Dudley Moore and Bo Derek as an example. Dudley Moore plays George, who just celebrated his 42nd birthday via a surprise party thrown by his lover Samantha. This seems to trigger a midlife crisis in George and he begins to become depressed about getting older, no longer able to go after young beautiful women and have casual sex anytime anywhere. He becomes withdrawn and rude to his friends and those around him. He even refuses sex with Sam, seemingly no longer interested in women closer to his age. His mind is completely obsessed with young women. I feel that in showing George pushing away a perfectly good relationship with a witty and charming woman his age in favor of silly daydreams, the movie is telling people to really focus on what they have and be happy. George is not thinking properly. His crisis goes into full swing when he happens to see a bride on the way to her wedding, Jenny. George sees her as the most beautiful woman he has ever seen and makes up his mind to find out everything he can about her. 


Eventually he follows her to Mexico where she is celebrating her honeymoon with her new husband. George is rather going into panic mode, so intent on forming whatever relationship he thinks he will accomplish with Jenny that he is willing to completely leave behind what he has at home and blindly stalk her. It shows incredible irresponsibility on his part. He does eventually run into Jenny and her husband on the beach. And fortunately for him, he has the chance to rescue her husband from floating out to sea and wins a date with her. And the date actually comes to a point where George has the opportunity to sleep with Jenny, despite her being being married. A phone call between Jenny and her husband while George is there reveals that both of them practice an open marriage situation. This apparently disappoints George since part of the thrill he was pursuing during his midlife crisis was the excitement of an affair. This new knowledge takes away the spark that George needed to continue his search for a rejuvenating relationship with a younger woman. He is no longer attracted to Jenny and returns home to Sam. Having gone through the whole experience, George has a new found respect for this time in his life and rekindles his relationship with Sam. He realized how uncaring and selfish he was being and discovered that his supposed real desire for young flesh and the reigniting of his youth was not worth it and not what he thought it would be. He found new ways to improve his sex life with Sam and rediscovered his place at his age. The movie looks to me like a sex comedy more than anything because the romance part does not really come until the end where George realizes he was taking Sam for granted. The entire movie is primarily about sexual desire and George's pursuit of it with Jenny, then finding out it was not really what he expected. There are many innuendos throughout the film and focuses on sexual relationships.