L'amore ha due facce

Love this movie because it is a how single professor found her love, which I felt so related to my life.

The surprising fact is when I want to rated it, it turned out I have rated it before! For me now it's an 8, while my previous rating was 7. I think for a movie which had released for almost 30 years ago, it's still so good.

I was curious and checked when I watch this before, because I have no idea during watching. Thankfully IMDB has history record! I found out watched it on February 2009, it's about 12 years ago and the rating getting higher 1 star 😆

THE MIRROR HAS TWO FACES **** There are close to no gentlemen callers who are waiting to romance professor Rose Morgan (Barbra Streisand), so she's learning to settle for a life with no man by her side. To her surprise, she is eventually pursued by a Math teacher (Jeff Brydges) who seeks a platonic marital relationship. Needlessly appreciative of the fact that any man - much less an attractive man - wants her, she becomes frustrated with the lack of intimacy between them as they draw together and eventually wed. The role-playing between Streisand and her antagonistic mother (Lauren Becall) adds intensity to the story. A fine work by Streisand.

I just want to begin by saying that, yes, I am a Barbra Streisand fan. However I am not the type of fan that regards everything she does as perfect. For instance I can safely say that "Yentl", while a very good idea and a noble effort was overindulgent and in desperate need of editing. Now as far as this film is concerned I never went to see it because I was told that all it was about was some ugly Jewish girl who in order to get her man bleaches her hair and loses weight. But after a spontaneous rental I was surprised to find myself actually enjoying it. At the end I realized that it wasn't as "sexist" and "anti-woman" as I had initially believed. Instead, it took seeing the "made-up" Barbra for Jeff Bridges to realize how beautiful the "un-made" Barbra was. The film was well acted all around, and well directed by Ms. Streisand.

About the only redeeming characteristics are that Jeff Bridges' character realizes that he has been a schmuck, and Lauren Bacall's character realized how hurtful the cumulative effect of words can be. Otherwise, I found myself becoming annoyed at the overall message.

First off, why must a woman re-make herself totally in order to be seen as sexually attractive? Rose looked far better at the start of the movie than she did at the end. Secondly, What was wrong with the way "Rose" looked at the start of the movie? Totally comfortable, quirky, and sensible. And the idea that a size eight is considered "fat" .... well, I just rolled at that one.

Rose does repudiate sheer looks by the end of the film, but the moment is almost too tiny to be noticed. The bulk of the film shows a woman thinking she's ugly, when she is far from it (but that's a Streisand trope: Babs, you have a big nose, and who cares? You look fine and very attractive), and thinking that comfortable clothes mean frumpiness. It encourages the over-awareness of body--since when has a size eight been "too fat"?????? Basically, Rose's re-awakening to the importance of mind and self, not external standards of beauty, is too little to compensate for all the rest of the film.

Let me just say that despite mixed reviews and public jesting, if it weren't Barbra Streisand that made this movie and it were someone else, no one would make fun of it like they do. Everyone just likes to pick on Barbra. But this movie is actually good! This film, about a man (Jeff Bridges) who goes looking for a nonsexual relationship and finds it with a middle-aged dateless professor (Barbra Streisand). As the two leads, these actors shine immensely! Mimi Rogers and Brenda Vaccaro are equally good in their supporting and often comic roles, as is George Segal. But the star of this movie, I must say, is Lauren Bacall as Streisand's beautifully aging mother. Bacall, who is not really known for her comedy roles, took the role and ran with it, making her character hilarious at times, heart-pouring at others. She is terrific! As for the actual storyline of the movie, it is somewhat predictable in its final outcome, but the routes it takes along the way are always interesting. The music is terrific; who doesn't like Luciano Pavarotti's "Nessun Dorma"? A very delightful romantic comedy!