Movie · 1979 · Comedy, Romance · 2h 2m · R · English
Curator score: 3.4/10 (29.6K ratings)
A temptingly tasteful comedy for adults who can count.
Overview
A Hollywood songwriter goes through a mid-life crisis and becomes infatuated with a sexy blonde newlywed.
Ratings
Curator score: 3.4/10
IMDb: 6.2/10
Letterboxd: 3.18/5
Rotten Tomatoes: 64%
Metacritic: 68
TMDB: 5.8/10
Director
Blake Edwards
Production
Orion Pictures
Cast
Dudley Moore, Julie Andrews, Bo Derek, Robert Webber, Dee Wallace, Sam J. Jones, Brian Dennehy, Max Showalter, Rad Daly, Nedra Volz, James Noble, Virginia Kiser, John Hawker, Deborah Rush, Don Calfa, Walter George Alton, John Hancock, Lorry Goldman, Arthur Rosenberg, Mari Gorman
Curator Review
Verdict
A glossy, very late-70s midlife-crisis comedy with real charm, memorable slapstick, and a famous cultural footprint, but it’s also uneven, dated in its gender politics, and more interesting as a time capsule than as a consistently sharp rom-com.
Best for
fans of Blake Edwards-style farce and social embarrassment comedy
viewers interested in 1970s Hollywood sex comedies
people curious about the origins of the modern midlife-crisis movie
audiences who enjoy a mix of slapstick, melancholy, and adult relationship comedy
Skip if
you want a tightly plotted or consistently funny comedy
you’re sensitive to dated male-gaze humor and sexist behavior
you prefer romance stories with more emotional equality
you dislike episodic, meandering storytelling
Overview
10 is one of those movies that feels both of its moment and oddly ahead of it. Blake Edwards turns a simple premise into a slippery mix of embarrassment, desire, and self-delusion, with Dudley Moore playing the kind of man who mistakes panic for enlightenment. The movie’s reputation rests partly on its iconic beach imagery, but its real hook is the uneasy comedy of a successful man realizing he is not nearly as composed, desirable, or young as he thinks he is.
Worth noting
What keeps it watchable is Edwards’ ability to make scenes feel lived-in rather than neatly engineered. The film drifts, repeats itself, and occasionally loses its grip, but that looseness also gives it a strange, almost observational quality. It can be very funny, especially when it leans into physical humiliation and social awkwardness, though the humor is inseparable from the era’s casual sexism and the movie’s fixation on male fantasy.
Bottom line
Julie Andrews gives the film warmth and stability, while the supporting cast helps ground the chaos. Even when the movie is frustrating, it has enough craft, rhythm, and cultural weirdness to remain memorable. It’s best approached as a flawed but revealing artifact: a mainstream comedy that helped define the modern midlife-crisis template while exposing just how anxious and foolish that template can be.
Top Letterboxd reviews
theriverjordan (4★) · 179 likes
“Ten” is the movie that made the midlife crisis mainstream.
It’s also the film that made young white women think they could get beaded cornrows on vacation in Mexico.
So, it isn’t exactly the black Givenchy dress of “Breakfast at Tiffany’s.” Director Blake Edwards still had the touch to lay ground for iconic cinema fashion moments late into his career.
“Ten” stars Dudley Moore as a composer that has a meltdown when he hits his mid-40s, with Julie Andrews (Edwards’… more
Joe (4★) · 96 likes
"Couldafooledme!"
Truly strange and episodic in a way that belies its status as a commercial smash (albeit one that's half-remembered by movie people today), maybe because every generation or so audiences respond to a movie that has the weird, inconsistent, and inexplicable rhythms of real life instead of a conventionally structured screenplay. Of course, that Blake Edwards' personal and insightful story is also tempered by a ton of old-fashioned slapstick helps it go down as smoothly as painkillers and alcohol.… more
DNA cinephile🏳️🌈 (3★) · 81 likes
10. 1979. Directed by Blake Edwards.
10 is a rom-com about Dudley Moore who experiencing a mid-life crisis and his partner is Julie Andrews. If Julie Andrew’s were my partner, I would be one of the happiest women alive. However, Dudley Moore was thinking with his sex organ when he saw Bo Derek and his life is turned upside down. I will admit that I was skeptical about watching this film as I thought it might be too misogynistic. However,… more
Xeremy Hall 🟠🟢🔵 (3★) · 69 likes
Mid-life Crisis: The Movie. I have to wonder how many of Dudley Moore's characters would have survived the #metoo era. I don't think that number's very high. George Webber certainly would have been canceled a long time ago. George is a middle-aged jackass who feels like he has one foot in the grave and goes through life in a perpetual state of depression. His life is invigorated when he gets a glimpse of the hottest girl he's ever seen on… more Mid-life Crisis: The Movie. I have to wonder how many of Dudley Moore's characters would have survived the #metoo era. I don't think that number's very high. George Webber certainly would have been canceled a long time ago. George is a middle-aged jackass who feels like he has one foot in the grave and goes through life in a perpetual state of depression. His life is invigorated when he gets a glimpse of the hottest girl he's ever seen on… more
Nathan Rabin (4★) · 55 likes
You read it here first: 10 will be the first very first positive entry in Forgotbusters. I wasn't even sure if it would qualify but everyone over the age of 40 who I've talked about it with has said, "10? Everyone knows 10." and everyone under the age of 40 has been all, "What's 10?"
1955 · Comedy, Romance · 1h 45m · NR · Curator 4.3/10 (115.2K ratings) · Where to watch: Amazon Prime Video, TCM, Darkroom, Amazon Prime Video with Ads
A classic of male temptation, marital strain, and comic self-delusion with a similarly iconic image culture.