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What's Your Number?

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For the Cypress Hill single, see What's Your Number? (song). For the Zhou Mi extended play, see What's Your Number? (Zhou Mi EP).
What's Your Number?
Theatrical release poster
Directed byMark Mylod
Screenplay by
Based on20 Times a Lady
by Karyn Bosnak
Produced by
Starring
CinematographyJ. Michael Muro
Edited byJulie Monroe
Music byAaron Zigman
Production
companies
Distributed by20th Century Fox
Release date
  • September 30, 2011 (2011-09-30)
Running time
106 minutes[1]
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
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, 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 to mostly negative reviews, with praise for its novel concept, the lead pair's chemistry along with Faris's performance, but criticism for its story and screenplay.

Plot

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In Boston, Ally Darling is a 30-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, Ally 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. Ally gets help from Colin, who is skilled in "digging up dirt", to find all her exes in exchange for letting him come to her place after his one-night stands. She asks 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 confess her feelings, which he reciprocates.

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

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Release and reception

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Box office

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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

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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 is 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

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  1. ^ "What's Your Number?". British Board of Film Classification. 2011-07-04. Archived from the original on 2023-11-15. Retrieved 2012-01-21.
  2. ^ Kaufman, Amy (2011-09-29). "Movie Projector: Holdovers likely to beat '50/50,' 'Dream House'". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on 2011-10-01. Retrieved 2011-09-30.
  3. ^ a b c "What's Your Number". Box Office Mojo. 2011-10-02. Archived from the original on 2012-05-03. Retrieved 2011-12-02.
  4. ^ "Weekend Box Office Results for September 30-October 2, 2011". Box Office Mojo. 2011-10-03. Archived from the original on 2020-01-31. Retrieved 2012-01-21.
  5. ^ "What's Your Number? (2011)". Rotten Tomatoes. Fandango Media. Archived from the original on 2019-12-27. Retrieved 2019-12-09.
  6. ^ "What's Your Number? Reviews". Metacritic. CBS Interactive. Archived from the original on 2018-04-01. Retrieved 2018-03-07.
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