Peter Hyams' first script he wrote actually got sold and made. He became known for action-y pics/thrillers so it's a surprise to find this work is basically a woman's picture. I guess that's the best description, even though it starts with two men (which I think is the problem). The opening credits are Peter Boyle arriving in Chicago - he meets up with acquaintance James Caan who sets him up with a hooker... Candice Bergen. Boyle can't get it up but he hits it off with Bergen and she tells him her life story.
I thought this would be a film about how a woman became a prostitute but it's not because Bergen's not a prostitute, not really - she's a small town gal who moves to the big city and has various adventures. She goes on a few dates, experiences working in a firm, makes friends with Marcia Rodd (who is great - she was in Little Murders). One hour in she meets Caan and falls in love I guess over an afternoon and he gives her money and she's so insulted she becomes a prostitute... I think...
Look, that's one of the film's problems, it never seems to have a theme. It's a collection of incidents and scenes, some of them funny. I think it needed to focus more on her relationships, something with progression - there's one with Boyle, and Caan (though he comes in too late), and I think we needed to see her mother.
Also it's a film about a woman written by a man in an original script and directed by a man, Herbert Ross. Bergen wasn't quite up to the role, although she looks terrific.
But it's a stylish movie, it takes a swing from the fences - the fact it got made is quite remarkable.
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