![]() Elle Macpherson, no less, and despite being mooned over by all the sauciest girls in his math classes at Columbia, Professor Gregory Larkin (Bridges) feels so desperate for a meaningful relationship not based on sex that he places a personals ad. This is merely the first of many moves to make the picture as easy on the eyes as possible, and all but impossible to watch with a straight face.Īfter being dumped by g.f. Onbalance, though, this is a moving and challenging movie, fascinated by themurky depths that separate what people want from what they say they want andwhat they think they should want.Streisand and scripter Richard LaGravenese have no doubt wisely jettisoned both the knife and the murder and, for starters, have transformed the sniveling, boorish husband into hunky university prof Jeff Bridges. She comes across morelike an inspirational after-dinner speaker with a standup comic's style thanlike a literature professor in today's better schools, the students wouldquickly pass the word that she was a lightweight showboat. And although the Streisand character is articulate and intelligent inmost scenes, her intelligence level falters in the key scene intended toestablish it, as she lectures her Columbia lit students. Where is Streisand's family from? Streisand speaks with her usual NewYork accent, Bacall sounds mid-Atlantic, and Mimi Rogers sounds WASP as thesister. #The mirror has two faces movie#Transformation scenes are standard in the movies, but this onepays off in an unexpected way, leading to a payoff the movie works hard for,and earns. Gregory has left after theawkward sex showdown, but now he wants to come back, and she thinks maybe shecan seduce him. Itleads to a dependable movie cliché, in which Rose transforms herself throughexercise, wardrobe and makeup, into a beauty. “You were such a beautiful baby,” themother says, and Rose says, “Thanks for showing me this picture, mom.” It is agreat scene. Themother then produces a photo of a cute baby, which Streisand assumes is of hersister. Wesee a photograph of Bacall at about the age of 20, and we see Bacall now,beautiful in a different way, but old, and the daughter asks, “How did it feel?Being beautiful?” “It was wonderful,” her mother says, and we get the eerie andmagical sense that we are hearing Streisand and Bacall discussing this. It'srare, too, to find such verbal characters in a movie, and listening to themtalk is one of the pleasures of “The Mirror Has Two Faces.” There is awonderful scene in which Rose and her mother ( Lauren Bacall) discuss beauty. It's rare to find a film thatdeals intelligently with issues of sex and love, instead of just assuming thateveryone on the screen and in the audience shares the same popular cultureassumptions. Thescreenplay, by Richard LaGravenese, based on an earlier French film, is like aShaw play-”Pygmalion,” in fact, except that this Higgins has nothing to teachhis Eliza, and she has everything to teach him. So attracted that when he proposes marriageshe agrees to his terms: No sex, no physical affection, just “a meeting of twominds”-respect and friendship and none of that messy stuff to get in the way.This works for a while, until she gets carried away and puts on a sexynightgown, and he locks himself in the bathroom. She is amazed byhow much she is attracted to him. Desperate, he calls a phone sex line (for advice, not sex) andthat leads to his lonely-hearts ad and the big first date with Rose, at whichhe exclaims “beautiful!” as he looks at the sound waves on an oscilloscopewhile attending a concert. In anawkward and unconvincing early scene, he is giving a talk on mathematicaltheory when he spots his ex-wife in the audience, falters, blathers, and fleesfrom the stage. Gregoryis the kind of man who believes he cannot function well if he's in love. ![]()
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