No one who looks like her....

This is a general Hollywood casting problem. Hollywood seems to only have time for leading actresses who are extremely attractive; the ordinary looking ones seldom get more than character parts. Even the few roles scripted for "older" women go to extremely attractive, older actresses.

This is one of those cases where the lead should really be pretty ordinary looking in order to sell us the situation more convincingly.

I'm sure there are lonely, desperate, impoverished beautiful women out there but not enough for it to feel realistic.

I usually don't think looks matter if the acting is great, but yes her beauty detracted from the believability of her plight.

Jennifer Connelly was pretty when this was filmed, but not breathtaking. Very plausible for someone like her to feel isolated.

huh? her husband just left her. was she suppose to have a ton of male friends waiting on the sidelines to jump in? do you know how hard the dissolution of a marriage is on someone's mental state?