10

10 (1979) is Blake Edwards' sharp-edged Hollywood comedy — watch it online on iFILM. Dudley Moore plays George Weber, a successful songwriter who hits forty-two and suddenly can't outrun the arithmetic. His life is genuinely good: Julie Andrews is his devoted partner, his career is ticking along. None of it helps when he spots a radiant bride in a passing wedding convoy and decides she's the woman he should have found instead.

Bo Derek plays Jenny, the unwitting object of George's fixation, and her performance turned her into a cultural phenomenon virtually overnight. George follows the newlyweds to Mexico, nurses his obsession, and discovers — step by comedic step — that the fantasy and the person are two entirely different things. Sam Jones and Robert Webber round out a cast Edwards uses to keep George's self-delusion in sharp relief.

Edwards was genuinely interested in the gap between what men think they want and what they actually need, and he doesn't let George off the hook here. Moore is at his funniest precisely because his character is also a little pathetic — and the film knows it. Stream 10 (1979) on iFILM.