Diane Keaton um, let's see ... Women are presumed to be dull. ... Now a determined trend spotter can point to a handful of new films whose makers think that women can bear the dramatic weight of a production alone, or virtually so. Then there is Diane Keaton in "Looking for Mr. Goodbar". As Theresa Dunn, Keaton dominates this raunchy, risky, violent dramatization of Judith Rossner's 1975 novel about a schoolteacher who cruises singles bars. In addition to acting, Keaton has stated that "<nowiki>[I]</nowiki> had a lifelong ambition to be a singer." She had a brief, unrealized career as a recording artist
Looking for Mr. Goodbar sparked her interest, that of schoolteacher Roseann Quinn who had been brutally slain in January 1973 by a man she had purportedly picked up in a singles bar. In the end, "Esquire", fearing legal ramifications, declined to publish the article, so Rossner decided to write a novel instead. "Looking for Mr. Goodbar" was published by Simon & Schuster on June 2, 1975, to positive reviews. Carol Eisen Rinzler, in "The New York Times", said the book was "a complex and chilling portrait of a woman's descent into hell... full of insight and intelligence and illumination." "Time" magazine wrote, "it is