A ‘howlingly funny fat farm farce’ isn’t many people’s idea of a good time – but beneath the weight-shaming facade of Nancy Zala’s film is something quite wholesome, as Dave discovers.

Judith’s (Kate Mulgrew) marriage to Big Al (Marty Ingels) – ‘The Muffler King’ – is all business and no pleasure, which leads her to believe he’s having an affair with his gorgeous ‘Muffler Mate of the Month’, Mitzie (Hope Marie Carlton, Playboy Playmate of the Month, July ’85). Determined to beat her young, voluptuous rival at her own game (“She looks like a tanned pencil with a bikini eraser”), Judith books herself into the same ritzy health spa that Mitzie attends, and – as the video sleeve states – “a howlingly funny fat farm farce” ensues.

It’s hard to know what you’re letting yourself in for reading ROUND NUMBERS’ box. Shot thirty-five years ago, when Hollywood was prone to making problematic pokes at people under the guise of comedy, the concept of finding hilarity in group of women driven to the edge by their need for body positivity is cause for concern.

Thankfully such unease is short-lived.

Presumably the sales department of Hemdale Home Video had a unified look of bewilderment when faced with the prospect of how to market the picture. For me, if Woody Allen was a middle-aged divorcee, you could well have found Round Numbers sandwiched somewhere between Shadows and Fog (1991) and Husbands and Wives (1992).

The satire is biting, and Judith gets all the best lines which Mulgrew delivers with raspy sass (“This woman doesn’t need to get laid; she needs an exorcist”). The rest of the ensemble are cleverly assembled, with her new-found friends attending the I.H.O.B. (International House of Bodies) all adding a smirk-inducing quirk or two. Anne (Samantha Eggar) is the posh one, Gracie (Natalie Barish) the old one, and Katie (Debra Christofferson) the IQ challenged one. “I’m a colour consultant” she preens; “Dare I ask which one?” growls Judith.

What criticism there is of Round Numbers tends to focus on the fact that Kate Mulgrew is in such great shape. “This movie hates fat people so much it won’t even cast a fat person to play a fat person”, wrote an irate Letterboxd diarist. But then we can switch that same logic over to Sean Penn playing a gay icon in Milk (2008) or even Joaquin Phoenix in Napoleon (2023). As far as I know, I don’t believe the latter ever fought at Waterloo.

Of utmost importance in this enjoyable movie is how hard the punches land, and in Nancy Zala’s script (which she also directs) they hit with some force, leaving a chunk of the heterosexual male population with a bloodied nose. And rightly so too. The standout sequence of the film takes place in – and almost all of – the final third, as the full ensemble embark on a half-hour conversation about the challenges in their lives. It’s bold, it’s hilarious, it’s daring, and it’s affecting.

Round Numbers remains Zala’s sole directorial endeavour, completed in the midst of a forty-year career on the stage which took her to Broadway, regional theatres, and repertory performances all over the United States. In a fascinating footnote, she’s also the biological mother of the actor Fred Melamed, who was adopted at birth by a secular Jewish family.

USA ● 1992 ● Comedy ● 98mins

Kate Mulgrew, Samantha Eggar, Shani Wallis, Natalie Barish, Rick Dano ● Dir. Nancy Zala ● Wri. Antonia Petnunas, Nancy Zala