10
Blake Edwards’s “10” could be the first comedy ever about terminal yearning. It is similar to all great comic works in that it touches on emotions that are dear to our hearts: In this particular case, it is the unutterable poignancy of a man’s wish for a woman he cannot have. The woman must be incredibly desirable (and the hero of “10,” gives her an 11 out of 10). Moreover, if the man is also short, forty-two and filled with inchoate longings then by all means.
You remember those inchoate longings. Those things used to stalk Thomas Wolfe’s novels before Me Generation and instant gratification cults took over. There was a time when one could not get something just by desiring it. That was what time “10” remembers. At the start of “10,” its main character played by Dudley Moore seems to have been blessed with virtually everything any man might wish for himself. Notably, he is a talented composer and his girlfriend is Julie Andrews aside from living in a mountainous mansion complete with a Rolls Royce and cable television whose channels can be changed using remote control.
Then one day driving down Santa Monica Boulevard in his Rolls, he saw something strange. She was an extremely stunning young lady who was sitting at the wheel of the next car; she looked at him and fell instantly and helplessly in love with him but turned away because she had other things to do; he realized this when she turned back again. She has dressed up like a bride as she goes directly to church for her wedding.
He follows her into her church; inside there , he gets stung by bees. He then gets six cavities drilled by her father, who happens to be his dentist. After being sedated on pain killers mixed with brandy, he ends up on an airplane headed for Mexico where miraculously enough he ends up at the same resort as his dream girl (and of course her husband who is one of those empty headed beach boy types with the kind of smile that would be fit for a Jockey T-shirts model).
Blake Edwards’ screenplay now takes us into some rather less light waters, which we shall not follow. As for what we are struck by in “10”, it’s how uncannily its humor makes us laugh while evoking feelings and desires that are all too real. We feel for these people: Their predicaments are funny, yes but imagine how ours would appear, if they weren’t.
Dudley Moore’s performance is the main treasure of this film. There might have been moments when Moore thought he would never get the girl. In “10,” he does. Moreover, his character portrayal gives a lot more than just a comedy; “10” becomes an exploration on human nature and its follies.
Bo Derek plays the female protagonist (scoring 11). She is too desirable, too pure and happy a personification of sexual perfection that even when Dudley Moore has to sit through Ravel’s interminable “Bolero” you can’t help being right there with him.
Julie Andrews has a small but delightful role as the sensible mistress, Robert Webber turns in an affecting performance as Moore’s vulnerable gay friend, and Brian Dennehy exhibits both sensitivity and understanding as an exceptional bartender in Mexico .
It was a turning point in the movie career of Blake Edwards, not only because it is one of the best films he has ever made. In the past decade, he had been alternating between successful Pink Panther films and non-panther failures such as The Tamarind seed, The wild rovers and, The carey treatment. Was there another good straight movie that would come from him? Absolutely!
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