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The Mirror Has Two Faces

1996, Movie, PG-13, 126 mins

The Mirror Has Two Faces: Review

MIRROR HAS TWO FACES, THE
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A leaden romantic comedy about an ugly duckling who turns herself into a silly goose, built around the overweening ego of star, director and producer Barbra Streisand. Plain-Jane Rose (Streisand), a brilliant professor of English, falls madly in love with mathematician Gregory Larkin (Jeff Bridges), who's convinced that sex ruins everything and wants to love Rose for her spirit and intellect. Their marriage of the minds, of course, is a disaster. The heartbroken Rose transforms herself from a purported frump into an impeccably coiffed Long Island matron d'un certain age, the better to show them all that her bosoms are at least the equal of her brains. Leave aside the uncomfortable autobiographical undercurrent that makes this picture seem like filmmaking as therapy, and the fact that it's one of those fantasies about the ivory tower world of higher education that suggest no one involved has a clue what really goes on in the groves of academe: Those are givens. Streisand the actress is actually quite funny when she relaxes and lets herself be the tart-tongued, tough cookie who clearly comes quite naturally to her, though the spectacle of virtually all the film's secondary characters fawning over Rose and declaring her beautiful is a bit discomfiting. But Streisand the director has no sense of pacing or, more importantly, casting. This dim -- and very long -- fairy tale founders on its conspicuously mature players, who are called upon to dither through the sort of ridiculously complicated tomfoolery that's cute only on the very, very young. Sister Mimi Rogers, dragon-lady mom Lauren Bacall, old flame Pierce Brosnan, best friend Brenda Vacarro and, of course, Streisand and Bridges, are all-too-obviously old enough to know better. Their silly shenanigans are at best a bit sad, at worst rather grotesque. leave a comment
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The Mirror Has Two Faces
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The Barbra Streisand Collection (The Mirror Has Two Faces / The Prince of Tides / The Way We Were)
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