First of all, I wanna say I saw this awful movie because it streamed no Netflix and it said it was a romantic comedy. Well it's not. Just because it has some "funny" jokes doesn't mean it has to be a comedy. It should be porn or something. It should be called "Sex and crying then more sex and more they end up together". 3 stars for Barb. 1 for George Segal. 1 for Lauren Bacall.

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.

OK. If you accept this movie for what it is, it's actually pretty entertaining. It's a Cinderella story for middle-aged folks. I won't recap the film. That's not my job. I'm here only to give you my impressions on the watchability and impact of this movie. If you love Barbra Streisand (and I do) and you love Jeff Bridges (and I do), you will love this romantic comedy. Both are at their funny, witty, comedic best in this film. Mimi Rogers is gorgeous as Bab's sister. (Oddly, Netflix has her mistakenly identified as Fran Drescher on its website.) Lauren Bacall is stunningly beautiful - still. Overall, the film has a lot of heart. What I love about Streisand is that she knows her weaknesses and her strengths, and plays both up to much effect in this film, which she directed and, I believe, co-wrote. This is a quintessential "chick flick," the kind you enjoy on a raining Sunday night with a big bowl of popcorn. If you are in just the right mood for a film that shamelessly exploits your feelings about romance, this one is it. Enjoy.

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.