The Mirror Has Two Faces (1996)

Terrible acting, screenplay and direction.

One of my all time favorites.

It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

No one ever told her she was pretty growing up. So, Barbra had to make a self-loathing piece of reassurance that, yes, she is pretty and that, yes, the WASP handsome guy will fall in love with her. It didn't work out in "The Way We Were." But in her own production, she can give herself the happy ending she always wanted. And that, when James Brolin married her, she got in real life.This movie goes around and around: "Are looks the only thing that matter?" Yes. No. Yes. No. Barbra rejects poor Austin Pendleton, the ugly, nerdy guy who pursues her. Why? Because he is ugly and nerdy. We see him later with a doppleganger girlfriend, as unattractive and nerdy as he is. That's it, implies Barbra. Ugly people only get ugly people. She decries superficial attraction, yet it's the only kind that she herself seeks. Why won't the handsome guy love her? Pierce Brosnan rejected her because she wasn't pretty. (Mimi Rogers is held up as the ideal. Really?) But when Barbra emerges reborn as "beautiful" she rejects him for his superficiality. Yet she had only been attracted to him for his looks. So, who is the superficial one?This movie should be structured so that the "Ugly Duckling" is transforms into a swan. "The Girl Most Likely To," has this before/after structure. Stockard Channing goes from unibrow frump to svelte beauty. (It's the apex of physical self-loathing, written by Joan Rivers, no surprise.) But here, the vain Barbra can't let herself be seen as truly unattractive.Her "Before" is "Before and After." Barbra is beautifully photographed and every hair is in place. People say she never wears make-up, when clearly she is perfectly made up. She wants to be loved "warts and all," but let's get rid of the warts first.And, because Barbra has been too vain to ever look truly unattractive, her reveal is unrevealing. She is still no great beauty - just someone trying very hard to look that way. Yes, hair and make-up are better. Yes, the (product placement) Donna Karan dresses are more flattering. But she is never going to look like the stunning Elle MacPherson, who shows up as Jeff Bridges' ex at the beginning of the movie.Get over it, Barbra.But she, like Joan Rivers, bore the indelible scars of rejection. And no amount of plastic surgery - for Joan - or plastic movie-making - for Barbra - will ever heal those wounds. I think it's kind of sad and pitiful.Some people reading this review might think, "What about the rest of the movie?" It's nicely produced. The writing is quite heavy-handed. The best scenes are given to a wistful Lauren Bacall. She remembers being beautiful and mourns her own aging. But the movie is all about the relationship between attractiveness and sex and courtly love. Taken as a treatise on superficiality - it's not pretty.

I admit this movie has flaws. It gets a bit too standard rom-com in its last 3rd, and I don't think many male viewers can (or want to) relate to a lead who nearly faints each time he encounters an attractive female. I agree also with other reviewers writing this film is a vanity project of Streisand (e.g. the reaction of the male students after she loses some pounds and wears nicer clothes - c'mon!). On the other hand, the film just does so many things right that it ends up being very enjoyable (that is, if you like romantic comedies). The dialogue is smart, there are a lot of funny scenes, and especially the great chemistry between Streisand and Bridges as well as Streisand and Bacall stands out. Bacall steals every scene she is in and has the best one-liners, Bridges and Streisand also do a great job. I especially liked the scenes somewhere in the middle of the film, where both of them get more intimate (which is actually quite hot), followed by an argument. This argument just feels so rough and real. This more toned down acting is where Streisand really shines. It is also nice how Bridges comes to realize how much he misses his wife whilst he travels, which has nothing to do with how she changes her appearance later on. So it's not the typical ugly duckling story, where the male lead only shows interest after she turned into a swan (he actually rejects the swan - as probably much of the audience will do - we want the 'old Rose' back!). This is a nice contrast to Brosnan's character, whom he portrays as a wonderfully shallow, simple-minded pretty face. Unfortunately, in trying to wrap things up, the film becomes a rather formulaic rom-com with cheesy ending. A bit more of fine-tuning by another director (removing the Streisand-vanity-scenes and the sometimes too strong female wishful thinking) could have made it a great flick. For me though, the acting (of the entire cast) and many funny and witty lines save this movie to be still well above average.

We see lots of romantic comedies, and this one has left the most rancid aftertaste since Moonstruck or one of the ones with Hugh Grant. It is artificial and contrived, as well as simultaneously polemical and narcissistic. We stayed with it for one reason only: Jeff Bridges. His performance is in fact whole-hearted and engaging, even though he is given a character upon whose implausibility the entire film depends. Streisand's limitations as an actress are painful to watch, and Bacall somehow seems aware that she is playing her part in a Streisand vanity project. The actress cast as Streisand's sister (the pretty one of the two), is not really beautiful enough to justify Streisand's character's angst, which makes it all even more fishy, as does the paper cut out role given Pierce Brosnan.

Incredible as it seems, "The Mirror Has Two Faces" is based on a French film of 1958 directed by Andre Cayatte, something the creators acknowledge in the credits. The American version has nothing much in common with the Gallic model. The great Michelle Morgan was the star of the original, in which the viewer is asked to accept an ugly version of the radiant actress. Bourvil played the opposite lead.This, being a Barbra Streisand project got a lavish production. Richard LaGravenese, wrote the adaptation to suit the talented Ms. Streisand, who had not attempted to direct anything after "The Prince of Tides", which came out in 1991. The vehicle was perfect for the star because in the film she is supposed to go from one of her kooky characters that she did so well, with a more serious side of her. The end result is a film that is pleasant, if a bit predictable.Ms. Streisand plays Rose Morgan an English literature professor at Columbia University. She attracts the attention of Gregory Larkin, a mathematician, by the strength of her rapport with her students. Unknown to Rose, her sister Claire has decided to submit an ad in the personals as a way to find her a boyfriend. When the two finally meet, it's a match made in heaven. The only problem is that Greg does not believe in having sex, even the kind performed by a married couple.Jeff Bridges plays Greg with flair with a good dose of chemistry between him and his co-star. Ms. Straisand does better during the first part of the film before it becomes more somber as Rose decides to leave Greg because there is nothing to hold them together. Lauren Bacall, Mimi Rogers, George Segal, Pierce Brosnan, Brenda Vaccaro, and Austin Pendleton are seen in the large supporting cast.We remember the time when this film was shot in New York's Upper West Side where the filming went on for quite some time while the neighbors became angrier by the way the night schedule interfered with their daily routines. One certainly hope they might have enjoyed the looks of their area when the film was finally released!