Review: Sex and the Single Girl

Sex and the Single Girl

Rating (out of 5): **½

It should surprise no one that when Warner Brothers tapped Joseph Heller to adapt Cosmopolitan editrix's Helen Gurley Brown's 1962 bestseller Sex and the Single Girl the scribe behind hyper male-centric satires like "Catch-22" and "Portrait of an Artist as an Old Man" would be somewhat befuddled by the plot-free (though delightfully ageless) testament to glamour and female sexual liberation. The resulting film would be a toothless sex farce celebrating marriage that feels at times oddly spiteful.

Natalie Wood plays Dr. Helen Gurley Brown, a psychologist whose titular bestseller touting the virtues of pursuing careers and casual sex has made her the target of Stop Magazine, an uber-sleazy, low-budget tabloid. Tony Curtis plays journalist Bob Weston who writes a fake expose to smear her good name by alleging that she is a virgin and that her depictions of women's desires are total fantasy. Since she won't sit down for an interview with him, he eavesdrops on his neighbors (Henry Fonda and a disturbingly tan Lauren Bacall) whose marital arguments he uses as a ruse to become one of Brown's patients. But hijinks ensue when he falls in love with Brown and concocts a complicated scheme to make her fall in love with him, first by threatening to commit suicide and then getting her drunk.

Read the rest of this review on Greencine. 

See also:

• The New York Times review of Jennifer Scanlon's Helen Gurley Brown biography "Bad Girls Go Everywhere".
  

Comments

[movie blog]

Natalie Wood is awesome :) But I actually liked the movie!

[Jason]

Cool, I Love Natalie Wood anyway!!
_______
JCH

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I find it very interesting blog but differ on some things! but the contributions are mostly valid!

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Antony Curtis plays journalist Bob Weston who writes a fake expose to smear her good name by alleging that she is a virgin and that her depictions of women's desires are total fantasy

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I just want to emphasize the good work on this blog, has excellent views and a clear vision of what you are looking for.

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I love Natalie Wood !! I need this collection.

[OLPA]

Crazy history... he falls in love?

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Make occasional dates with your husband. I can't emphasize enough the importance of dating in long-term relationships.

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Hello
Tony Curtis plays journalist Bob Weston who writes a fake expose to smear her good name by alleging that she is a virgin and that her depictions of women's desires are total fantasy

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Not really my cup of tea but I love Natalie Wood

[film school student]

so cool!!

http://www.nyfa.com/film_school/programs/

[DFA]

great!!!