The Mirror Has Two Faces

The Mirror Has Two Faces
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Barbra Streisand
Screenplay by	Richard LaGravenese
Story by	Richard LaGravenese
Based on	Le Miroir à deux faces by André Cayatte Gérard Oury
Produced by	Barbra Streisand Arnon Milchan Ronald L. Schwary
Starring	Barbra Streisand Jeff Bridges Pierce Brosnan George Segal Mimi Rogers Brenda Vaccaro Lauren Bacall
Cinematography	Dante Spinotti Andrzej Bartkowiak
Edited by	Jeff Werner
Music by	Marvin Hamlisch
Production company	TriStar Pictures[1]
Distributed by	TriStar Pictures[1] (through Sony Pictures Releasing[2])
Release date	November 15, 1996 (1996-11-15)
Running time	126 minutes[1]
Country	United States[1]
Language	English
Budget	$42 million[3]
Box office	$82 million[4]

The Mirror Has Two Faces is a 1996 American romantic comedy-drama film produced and directed by Barbra Streisand, who also stars. The screenplay by Richard LaGravenese is loosely based on the 1958 French film Le Miroir à deux faces written by André Cayatte and Gérard Oury. Also starring are Jeff Bridges, Pierce Brosnan, George Segal, Mimi Rogers, Brenda Vaccaro, and Lauren Bacall. The story focuses on a shy, middle-aged professor who enters into a platonic relationship with an unlucky colleague.

The film was released on November 15, 1996 and grossed $82 million. Streisand, Marvin Hamlisch, Robert John "Mutt" Lange, and Bryan Adams composed the film's theme song, "I Finally Found Someone". Streisand sang it on the soundtrack with Adams.

Plot

Rose Morgan, a middle-aged English literature professor at Columbia University, lives with her vain, overbearing mother, Hannah. While attending her sister Claire's third wedding (to Rose's former boyfriend Alex), Rose tells her best friend Doris that she knows she will never get married. However, she also believes it might feel wonderful to have a partner who really knows her.

Gregory Larkin is a Columbia math professor unable to connect with students and loses perspective when aroused by an attractive woman. Shortly after Gregory begins a talk about his new book, his ex-girlfriend Candace arrives. She flusters him so much that he has a panic attack and is unable to continue.

While recovering, Gregory begs his friend Henry not to let him go home with Candace, but leaves with her the moment she offers. Back at Gregory's place, Candace leaves immediately after they have sex. She is still with her new boyfriend, but wanted to bolster her ego because he was cheating on her.

Left in a state of frustration and rejection, Gregory places a personal ad that reads, "Columbia University professor (male) seeks woman interested in common goals and companionship. Must have Ph.D. and be over thirty-five. Physical appearance not important!"

Claire secretly responds to the ad for Rose, and that night after he's sat in on one her classes, Gregory asks Rose out to dinner. They begin a relationship akin to dating, but without any physical intimacy beyond an occasional hug.

Three months later, Gregory proposes. He emphasizes that their relationship will be built on common interest and caring, not sex. Although he does agree to occasional sex, provided Rose gives him enough warning. Gregory and Rose marry in a courthouse ceremony. The relationship continues to grow and become more emotionally intimate, with hints of physical attraction.

While discussing his European book tour at breakfast, Rose asks if now is enough warning to tell him she would like to have sex that night. She tries to make the scene seductive, while he tries to keep it benign. They end up passionately on the floor, until Gregory resists and pulls away. He expresses disappointment in her, calling her behavior "female manipulation", without admitting he only stopped because he was being swept away. Hours later, while Gregory is asleep, a devastated Rose sneaks out and goes back to her mother's.

During Rose's stay with her mother, Hannah shows her a photo of herself as a little girl. Her mother describes how pretty she was, and says her father had never held a baby until she came along. He "never let (her) go," Hannah tells Rose. This greatly changes Rose's view of herself: "I was pretty?" Rose decides to undergo a makeover (changes her diet, exercises, has her hair restyled, starts wearing curve-enhancing clothing and more flattering makeup).

Meanwhile, missing his wife, Gregory cuts his European book tour short and comes home. However, when he tells Rose he doesn't like her new appearance, she says she cannot continue being married, and moves back in with her mother.

When Alex finds Claire in bed with her masseur, they separate. Rose comforts Alex and they nearly make love, but she realizes the fantasy of Alex is better than the reality. Gregory starts lashing out at his students, distraught about his failing marriage. He ends up on Henry's couch an emotional and physical wreck, insisting he loves Rose and does not know what to do. Henry encourages him to fight for her.

Before sunrise, Gregory goes to Rose's apartment. He tells Rose he loves her and that he so desperately wanted her that night, it caused him to pull away. They mutually confess their love and, when Gregory says he wants to marry her, she reminds him they are still married. The sun comes up, and they catch a taxi home.

Cast

Production

The film had a troubled production, with filming delays and more than a dozen cast or crew members fired or leaving the production.^[5] Notably, Dudley Moore was fired after failing to remember his lines, being replaced by George Segal, while cinematographer Dante Spinotti and film editor Alan Heim dropped out on their own.^[5]

Release

The film grossed $41 million in the US and Canada.

Reception

Rotten Tomatoes, a review aggregator, reports that 54% of 35 surveyed critics the film a positive review; the average rating is 5.9/10.^[6]

In her review in The New York Times, Janet Maslin called the film's first hour "light and amusing" but added, "then [Barbra Streisand] impresses her audience with good will hubris that goes through the roof. Beguiling as she can be in ugly duckling roles, she becomes insufferable as this story's gloating swan . . . The overkill of The Mirror Has Two Faces is partly offset by Ms. Streisand's genuine diva appeal. The camera does love her, even with a gun to its head. And she's able to wring sympathy and humor from the first half of this role. The film also has a big asset in Ms. Bacall . . [who delivers] her lines with trademark tart panache . . . and cuts an elegant and sardonic figure".^[7]

Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times said the film "approaches the subject of marriage warily and with wit, like a George Bernard Shaw play . . . it's rare to find a film that deals intelligently with issues of sex and love, instead of just assuming that everyone on the screen and in the audience shares the same popular culture assumptions. It's rare, too, to find such verbal characters in a movie, and listening to them talk is one of the pleasures of The Mirror Has Two Faces . . . this is a moving and challenging movie".^[8]

In the San Francisco Chronicle, Edward Guthmann described the film as "a silly affirmation fantasy . . . that Streisand . . . uses to prove she's really beautiful, funny and worthy of being loved, gosh darn it . . . hasn't she returned to the theme of Homely Girl Redeemed, and crowned herself the victor, countless times? Look back and you'll see that Streisand's career, from the beginning, was one long battle cry for geeks and wallflowers and Jewish girls with big noses - a series of wish-fulfillment scenarios in which she, the perennial underdog, triumphs by dint of talent, chutzpah and a really great personality . . . in its first half The Mirror is a romantic-comic delight: nicely directed . . . well-acted by a terrific cast and peppered with great one-liners . . . by the second half . . . the movie has disintegrated into a humorless, drawn-out plea for reassurance".^[9]

Todd McCarthy of Variety called it "a vanity production of the first order. A staggeringly obsessive expression of the importance of appearances, good looks and being adored, Barbra Streisand's third directorial outing is also, incidentally, a very old-fashioned wish-fulfillment romantic comedy that has been directed and performed in the broadest possible manner . . . From the beginning, it is clear that Streisand intends to hit every point squarely on the head and maybe bang it a few extra times for good measure. Every gag, every line and every emotional cue is pitched to the top balcony so no one will miss a thing, and there are quite a few moments of self-examination and discovery where one nearly expects the star to break into song to underline what she is really feeling . . . the subject of the director's uninterrupted gaze. Lit and posed in an old-time movie star way you rarely see anymore, she plays out her career-long is-she-or-isn't-she-beautiful comic psychodrama one more time, with the girlish uncertainties wiped out with the speed of a costume change. If one were to take it all seriously, one would have to point out that there just isn't that much difference in Rose Before and After, that Streisand hasn't allowed herself to look unappealing enough to justify the big change. No matter. The narcissism on display is astonishing to behold, and veteran Barbra worshipers will have a field day. Beyond that, pic does deliver a number of laughs, deep-dish luxury on the production side and an engagingly enthusiastic performance from Bridges".^[10]

Lisa Schwarzbaum of Entertainment Weekly rated the film C− and added, "We know these two people are lonely and afraid of love and deserve our empathy. But they enact their tightly choreographed pas de deux in such a hermetically sealed universe that our emotions can never be engaged. Instead, we are left to muse, "Oy vey, does Streisand know how over-the-top she is?" That's not to say that Mirror is difficult to sit through. The synthetic one-liners that pass for humor and sentiment . . . are struck regularly, like gongs . . . The settings are pretty. The music is slick".^[11]

In The Washington Post, Rita Kempley called the film "Barbra Streisand's latest folly" and added, "Although meant to be a bubbly romantic comedy, the movie is actually a very public tragedy for Streisand, who still can't quite believe that she's not Michelle Pfeiffer . . . at 54, it's time to get over girlish hang-ups, forget the noble schnoz and thank God that unlike Cher, you're still recognizable".^[12]

In the newspaper's Weekend section, Desson Howe opined, "For Streisand fans, this ugly-duckling parable . . . is going to be the perfect experience. But for those who make crucifix signs with their fingers when her name is mentioned, this is definitely one to miss . . . the running time is hardly helped by a plethora of strategically framed shots of Rose's legs, new hairstyle, luscious lips and misty-blue eyes, after she has undergone a physical makeover. There is comic relief, however, from Lauren Bacall as Hannah, Rose’s egocentric, materialistic mother. Her withering lines . . . counteract some of the ubiquitous narcissism".^[13]

Lauren Bacall's performance garnered widespread critical acclaim, earning her the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress – Motion Picture and the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Supporting Role, in addition to a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress, the first in her then-50-plus year career.

Awards and nominations

The film is recognized by American Film Institute in these lists:

• 2004: AFI's 100 Years...100 Songs:
  • "I Finally Found Someone" – Nominated^[20]

Soundtrack

Original music for the film was composed by Marvin Hamlisch. It received a nomination for Best Original Score at the 54th Golden Globe Awards.^[21] On November 12, 1996, Sony released the soundtrack on CD.

Tracks include "Try a Little Tenderness" by David Sanborn, "The Power Inside of Me" by Richard Marx, "I Finally Found Someone" by Barbra Streisand and Bryan Adams, "All of My Life" by Barbra Streisand and "The Apology / Nessun Dorma" by Luciano Pavarotti with the London Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Zubin Mehta. In the final scene, Pavarotti's voice was mimed by real-life tenor and actor Carlo Scibelli.^[22][23]

The CD single for "I Finally Found Someone" also contains the Spanish-language version of Streisand's "Evergreen": "Siempre Verde (Tema de Amor de Nace Una Estrella)".

See also

• List of films about mathematicians

References

External links

Wikiquote has quotations related to The Mirror Has Two Faces.

• The Mirror Has Two Faces at IMDb
• The Mirror Has Two Faces at the TCM Movie Database
• The Mirror Has Two Faces at AllMovie
• The Mirror Has Two Faces at Box Office Mojo
• The Mirror Has Two Faces at Rotten Tomatoes
• Barbra Archives: The Mirror Has Two Faces film
• Barbra Archives: The Mirror Has Two Faces: Music From the Motion Picture