Actress Profile: Jill Clayburgh & An Unmarried Woman (1978, Dir. Paul Mazursky)

Jill Clayburgh (1944-2010) in An Unmarried Woman

Jill Clayburgh had a low-key, though very impressive career with an array of roles in which she gave fascinating and breathtaking performances. Though she performed on stage in numerous plays throughout the years, audiences remember her best from her Academy-Award nominated turns in 1978's An Unmarried Woman and Starting Over, as well as Luna, Shy People, Running With Scissors, and recently, the Television series Dirty Sexy Money. Along with other actresses in the 1970's, she was the face of New Age feminism (independent and strong-willed women) with role choices, but altogether Clayburgh was an actress to be reckoned with--her films were socially groundbreaking mostly because of her memorably brilliant performances. 

Arguably her best known work, An Unmarried Woman was written and directed by veteran filmmaker Paul Mazursky. It tells the story of Erica, an affluent wife and mother from the Upper East Side who's suddenly dumped by her husband for a much younger woman. Confused and disoriented, Erica is taken on a roller-coaster of emotions as she experiences her new single life and tests unlimited possibilities that bring her joy, pain, and most importantly, indispensable insight. 

Mazursky's direction is solid and script very revelatory--while humorous and (at times) light, he depicts divorce as both something grave in terms of shaping the people coming out of it and mysteriously exciting. These two opposite ends of this relational spectrum often blur together in his film, as Erica both laughs and cries over her plight and wish to just lead a normal, manageable life no matter what the case. Though Mazursky's story wouldn't be best realized as a compassionate though authentic piece of cinema without Clayburgh's excellent, layered performance. Displaying humility, grace, fear, surprise, anxiety, and sexuality (among a range of other whirlwind feelings) within a second of a facial expression, Clayburgh is gleefully toxic. Her performance is so relatable and contagious that you can't help but align yourself with her whether she's being rational or not; in one of the best roles written for a female in the 1970's (and, looking back, perhaps in the past three to four decades), Clayburgh absolutely nails it. She personifies the brink of the sexual liberation period of the time, breathing into it humanity and heart. A terrific film that harbors a terrific performance--without it, Mazursky's film would be biting but not as tender and resonating. 

Grade: A

Clayburgh is an actress to remember and cherish through all her notable and moving roles.