Phil Potter splits with his wife, Jessica. She wants to be a singer/songwriter and has been having an affair.
Phil moves from New York City to Boston, where his brother, Mickey, and his sister-in-law, Marva, live. They set him up with a blind date, Marilyn Holmberg, a nursery-school teacher working on her master's degree, but she declines when he asks to see her again.
Phil takes a part-time teaching job and attends a divorced-men workshop in a church basement, meeting men like Paul and Larry whose situations are similar to his. Marilyn tells him it's too soon following his breakup for her to consider a relationship with him. He goes on a date with her friend Marie, a single mom but he does not reciprocate her enthusiasm. Later, Marilyn relents and they begin dating.
At a family Thanksgiving dinner at his brother's house, Phil takes a phone call from Jessica in the middle of dinner. Marilyn overhears him telling Jessie that he is dining with his family and "their friend". Hurt, she ends their relationship. Soon after, he confronts Marilyn at a school carnival, where she is staffing a "Dunk the Teacher" dunk tank and, after dunking her several times, Phil asks her to "define" their relationship. Finally, Marilyn agrees when Phil invites her to move in with him.
Soon after they move in together, Phil returns to the apartment to find Marilyn and Jessica, who has unexpectedly turned up. She looks fabulous and has become a success as a songwriter and wants him back.
Phil moves back to New York City to be with Jessica again, but finds he misses Marilyn. He returns to Boston, only to find she is now dating a basketball player. Phil approaches her outside the school at which she works, then at a Boston Celtics practice, where he declares his love for her and she returns to him.
Kevin Bacon as Husband - Young Couple (scene deleted but still credited)
Reception
Roger Ebert gave the film 2 stars out of 4 and wrote that it "feels sort of embarrassed at times, maybe because characters are placed in silly sitcom situations and then forced to say lines that are supposed to be revealing and real."[3]Gene Siskel of the Chicago Tribune gave the film 3 stars out of 4 and said it was worth seeing because "Two-thirds of it (Reynolds and Clayburgh) work very well," though he disliked Candice Bergen, saying "she is awful in this picture" and that the script "somehow feels obliged to be cute or funny. We don't want jokes from 'Starting Over.' All we want is to see Reynolds and Clayburgh go out together and work on their problems."[4]Variety called the film "a delight. Much more than the flip side of An Unmarried Woman, to which it will inevitably be compared, the James L. Brook (sic) production takes on the subject of marital dissolution from a comic point of view, and succeeds admirably."[5]Charles Champlin of the Los Angeles Times declared, "It is, all in all, a classy entertainment which, right now and in years to come, will remind us quite accurately how things were between middle-class men and women, circa 1980."[6]Jack Kroll of Newsweek stated that the film "starts out well and continues well for about two-thirds of the way before succumbing to the creeping virus of the cutesies. But until then, Pakula finds a nice groove of effectively understated comedy."[7]Frank Rich said in Time, "Though this film has funny lines and a potentially explosive story, it rarely generates any emotion beyond bland good cheer. Right up to the moment that Starting Over is over, we are still waiting for the fireworks to start."[8] Gary Arnold of The Washington Post wrote, "As the newly divorced hero of 'Starting Over,' a delightful romantic comedy destined for enormous well-deserved popularity, Burt Reynolds reaches a breathtaking new plateau of screen acting dexterity."[9]
