What's Your Number?
What's Your Number? | |
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![]() Theatrical release poster | |
Directed by | Mark Mylod |
Screenplay by |
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Based on | 20 Times a Lady by Karyn Bosnak |
Produced by | |
Starring | |
Cinematography | J. Michael Muro |
Edited by | Julie Monroe |
Music by | Aaron Zigman |
Production companies | Contrafilm Regency Enterprises |
Distributed by | 20th Century Fox |
Release date |
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Running time | 106 minutes[1] |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Budget | $20 million[2][3] |
Box office | $30.4 million[3] |
What's Your Number? is a 2011 American romantic comedy film directed by Mark Mylod and starring Anna Faris and Chris Evans. Written by Gabrielle Allan and Jennifer Crittenden, it is based on Karyn Bosnak's book 20 Times a Lady. It was released on September 30, 2011.
Plot
In Boston, Ally Darling is a thirty-something woman, struggling to make better life decisions. Her boyfriend Rick breaks up with her when she asks him to attend her sister Daisy's wedding, and she then gets laid off. On the subway home, Ally comes across a Marie Claire magazine article entitled "What's Your Number?", which says that women who have more than twenty lovers in their lifetime have difficulty finding a husband.
After making a list of all the men she slept with, she realizes she's at 19, making her decide not to have sex with anyone else until she finds "the one". This lasts all of a few hours when she wakes up after Daisy's bachelorette party and discovers that she hooked up with her ex-boss Roger while drunk.
Hoping to avoid an awkward confrontation, Ally lets her musician neighbor Colin Shea into her apartment so that Roger will leave. It turns out that Colin was only over to avoid a girl he just slept with, because he doesn't want to give the women he sees any expectations.
Ally then runs into "Disgusting Donald", her once overweight ex-boyfriend, now successful and attractive with his fiancée. She decides to track down all her exes hoping that one will have grown into the man she wants to marry, and therefore the number of men she has slept with won't ever increase. She gets help from Colin, who is skilled in "digging up dirt", to find all her exes in exchange for letting him stay in her place after his one-night stands, telling Colin to pay particular attention to one ex Jake Adams, who Ally sees as "the one that got away".
Things do not quite work as Ally hoped and, one-by-one, she remembers why it didn't work out with each. It ranged from one being in the same job since their break-up to another requiring her to pretend to be British. Depressed after the failed meetings, Ally has a night out with Colin culminating in their growing closer and almost having sex. She stops him, but decides to take him as her date to Daisy's wedding. Daisy and Ally's friends worry she is falling for him, warning and reminding her of his promiscuous nature. She is later infuriated to find out Colin had found Jake Adams' contact details but withheld them, believing they were going to become an item, and they have a falling-out.
Ally successfully contacts Jake, and they begin to date again. She takes him to her sister's wedding while Colin and his band perform at a different one. Dancing with her dad at the reception, he makes her realize that her happiness lies in being herself. (Not pleasing her mom, who wants her to marry Jake Adams.) Dancing with Jake, Ally confesses her "number" ("body count") to Jake, and he, thinking she is joking, expresses disgust at the thought. Ally quickly realizes her true feelings lie with Colin and she and Jake are incompatible, so she breaks it off with him. In doing so, she casts aside her fears (in principle) over her number. Ally then goes around the city to numerous weddings to find Colin and confesses her feelings.
Waking up with Colin the next morning, Ally gets a call from an old fling telling her that they in fact did not sleep together. Ally rejoices in the fact that Colin is indeed the 20th and last (ongoing) man, with whom she will ever be.
Cast
- Anna Faris as Ally Darling
- Nadine Jacobson as Ally (age 14)
- Chris Evans as Colin Shea
- Ari Graynor as Daisy Anne Darling
- Blythe Danner as Ava Darling
- Ed Begley, Jr. as Mr. Darling
- Oliver Jackson-Cohen as Eddie Vogel
- Dave Annable as Jake Adams
- Colby Parsons as Jake (age 14)
- Heather Burns as Eileen
- Eliza Coupe as Sheila
- Kate Simses as Katie
- Tika Sumpter as Jamie
- Joel McHale as Roger the Boss
- Chris Pratt as Disgusting Donald
- Denise Vasi as Cara
- Zachary Quinto as Rick
- Mike Vogel as Dave Hansen
- Martin Freeman as Simon
- Andy Samberg as Jerry Perry
- Thomas Lennon as Dr. Barrett Ingold
- Anthony Mackie as Tom Piper
- Ivana Miličević as Jacinda
- Aziz Ansari as Jay
Release, reception
Box office
What's Your Number? grossed $14 million in the U.S. and Canada and $16.4 million in other territories, for a total gross of $30.4 million against a budget of $20 million.[3] It grossed $5.4 million in its opening weekend, finishing 8th at the box office.[4]
Critical reception
What's Your Number? received negative reviews from critics. On Rotten Tomatoes it has a rating of 24%, based on 113 reviews, with an average rating of 4.24/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "The comic timing of Anna Faris is sharp as always, but it's wasted away in this predictable, boilerplate comedy."[5] Metacritic gives it a score of 35 out of 100, based on 31 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews".[6]
References
- ^ "What's Your Number?". British Board of Film Classification. 2011-07-04. Retrieved 2012-01-21.
- ^ Kaufman, Amy (2011-09-29). "Movie Projector: Holdovers likely to beat '50/50,' 'Dream House'". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2011-09-30.
- ^ a b c "What's Your Number". Box Office Mojo. 2011-10-02. Retrieved 2011-12-02.
- ^ "Weekend Box Office Results for September 30-October 2, 2011". Box Office Mojo. 2011-10-03. Retrieved 2012-01-21.
- ^ "What's Your Number? (2011)". Rotten Tomatoes. Fandango Media. Retrieved 2019-12-09.
- ^ "What's Your Number? Reviews". Metacritic. CBS Interactive. Retrieved 2018-03-07.
External links
- 2011 films
- 2011 romantic comedy films
- 2010s sex comedy films
- 20th Century Fox films
- American romantic comedy films
- American sex comedy films
- 2010s English-language films
- Films based on American novels
- Films directed by Mark Mylod
- Films produced by Beau Flynn
- Films scored by Aaron Zigman
- Films set in Boston
- Films shot in Boston
- Regency Enterprises films
- 2010s American films