'What's Your Number?' (2011)

R | September 13, 2011 | 106 mins

Ally’s looking for the best ex of her life.

Ally Darling is realizing she’s a little lost in life. Her latest romance has just fizzled out, and she’s just been fired from her marketing job. Then she reads an eye-opening magazine article that warns that 96 percent of women who’ve been with 20 or more lovers are unlikely to find a husband. Determined to turn her life around and prove the article wrong, Ally embarks on a mission to find the perfect mate from among her numerous ex-boyfriends.

Cast: Anna Faris, Chris Evans [+]
Director: Mark Mylod
Writers: Karyn Bosnak, Gabrielle Allan, Jennifer Crittenden
Producers: Beau Flynn, Tripp Vinson
Cinematographer: J. Michael Muro
Editors: Julie Monroe
Music: Aaron Zigman
Distribution: 20th Century Fox

►The Rom Com Catalog Review

Name

Character

Ally

Colin

Daisy Anne

Ava

Mr. Darling

Eddie

Jake

Eileen

Sheila

Katie

Jamie

Roger

Disgusting Donald

Rick

Dave

Simon

Gerry

Barrett

Tom

Jacinda

Jay

Release Date

September 13, 2011

Runtime

106 minutes

Production Companies

Contrafilm, Regency Enterprisess

MPAA Rating

Language

English

Country

United States

Filming Dates

May 10, 2010 –

Filming Locations

State Street MBTA Entrance

Devonshire and Water Streets, Boston, Massachusetts

Government Center

28 State Street, Boston, Massachusetts

Ally’s office.

Arlington Street Church

351 Boylston Street, Boston, Massachusetts

Disgusting Donald’s wedding.

Boston Public Library Courtyard

700 Boylston Street, Boston, Massachusetts

Ally’s dinner with Jake Adams.

Bistro du Midi

272 Boylston Street, Boston, Massachusetts

Ally tells her mother her father is coming to her sister’s wedding.

Boston Athenaeum

10½ Beacon Street, Boston, Massachusetts

TD Banknorth Garden

100 Legends Way, Boston, Suffolk, Massachusetts

Ally and Colin play Horse.

Edward W. Brooke Courthouse

24 New Chardon Street, Boston, Massachusetts

Ally’s arrival in ‘Washington’ where she bumps into Donald. (Exterior)

The 21st Amendment

150 Bowdoin St, Boston, Massachusetts

Ally and Simon meet up.

58 Broadway, Chelsea, Massachusetts

Polish Political Club where Ally crashes a wedding.

Ally: Where’s my coffee pot?
Colin: I broke it. If you were on Twitter you would know that already.

Colin: I don’t know why you care so much about your number anyway
Ally: You guys all have this ideal girl in your minds, and if our number gets too high, we can’t be that girl.
Colin: The ideal girl. Tell me about her.
Ally: You know, you can take her home to the family, she’s smart, but not smarter than you, and she bakes apple pies with your mom and plays catch with your handicapped sister. But then when you’re alone, she takes off her glasses and puts on a vinyl cat suit and fucks you sideways
Colin: That girl doesn’t exist. If she did, I’d be sleeping with her. And what kind of guy cares about how many people you slept with anyway?
Ally: Decent guys.

Eileen: [When asked why Daisy wouldn’t 69 on her honeymoon] Because 69s are for when you’re 17 and you’re trying to cram everything in at once before your parents get home.

Jake: Well if I wasn’t your first, at least I can be your last.
Ally: Why? Are you going to rape and kill me later?

Jake: So, how does dinner in Milan and breakfast in Paris sound?
Ally: Starchy.

Ally: My husband is in the north pole. He’s a scientist too. He’s dealing with the whole ice cap situation. Yeah. He’s probably going to fix it.

Daisy: Well, I have met him, and he is dangerously sexy, and if he wanted to come in through the back door, you’d let him.

Chris Evans does his own singing in the movie.
While filming this movie, Anna Faris and Chris Pratt (Disgusting Donald) were married.
The script was a few years old by the time the film was greenlit. Anna Faris was adamant that they raise Ally’s number of sexual partners, because she felt that a girl her age in the modern world would have more life experience. On the other hand, the studio was adamant that it be 16 partners because they felt too many partners would make the character unrelatable to the audience. Anna lost the argument, and the number they settled on was 20 sexual partners for Ally.
Behind the scenes, Anna Faris was in a hard spat with the producers because she disagreed with her character’s outfit, especially the slender or very narrow high-heeled shoes.
Aziz Ansari makes a voice cameo at the end of the movie on Anna’s voicemail.
Martin Freeman’s character wears a St Barts Hospital tie; St. Barts is where the character Dr. John Watson trains, in Sherlock (2010). Martin Freeman played John Watson in this version of the Sherlock Holmes story.
During the number of people you’ve slept with guessing game, Ally ends the game after drawing herself. The last number seen in the glass is 6, which is Eileen’s number.
Most of the magazine articles shown at the beginning of the film directly relate to events in the plot. For example:
- “Change too much for your man?” reflects Ally’s tendency to change herself to please others.
- “Stalking your ex” ties into Ally’s quest to track down her ex-boyfriends.
- “Does he only want your bod?” hints at Colin’s initial physical attraction to Ally.
- “Less than perfect: A daughter’s story of pleasing her mother” mirrors Ally’s willingness to settle in relationships to meet her mother’s expectations.
- “Be a dude – not – a douche” foreshadows Colin’s character development.
- “When your sister is just plain better than you” parallels Ally’s feelings of inadequacy compared to her sister Daisy, especially in relationships.
- “Decorating your bedroom with him in mind”—the article given the most screen time—foreshadows Colin’s eventual presence in Ally’s apartment during his hideouts.