The Mirror Has Two Faces

1996 "A story about just how wrong two people can be before they can be right."
6.6| 2h6m| PG-13| en| More Info
Released: 15 November 1996 Released
Producted By: TriStar Pictures
Country: United States of America
Budget: 0
Revenue: 0
Official Website:
Synopsis

Rose Morgan, who still lives with her mother, is a professor of Romantic Literature who desperately longs for passion in her life. Gregory Larkin, a mathematics professor, has been burned by passionate relationships and longs for a sexless union based on friendship and respect.

... View More
Stream Online

The movie is currently not available onine

Director

Producted By

TriStar Pictures

AD
AD

Watch Free for 30 Days

All Prime Video Movies and TV Shows. Cancel anytime. Watch Now

Trailers & Images

Reviews

Fluentiama Perfect cast and a good story
Hayden Kane There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes
Jenna Walter The film may be flawed, but its message is not.
Fatma Suarez The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful
JLA-2 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.
SnoopyStyle Gregory Larkin (Jeff Bridges) is a math professor at Columbia. His students are bored. He is always distracted by beautiful women. His ex Candy shows up for his book signing and he is completely flustered. He asks adult phone sex operator Felicia for advise and he puts up a personal ad with "Physical appearance not important!". Rose Morgan (Barbra Streisand) is an ugly duckling, Yankees fan, and English Lit professor at Columbia. Her beautiful sister Claire (Mimi Rogers) marries her ex Alex (Pierce Brosnan) whom she still holds a flame for. Their mother Hannah Morgan (Lauren Bacall) is inappropriate and pushy. Claire answers the ad for Rose. Gregory finds her intelligence and lack of sex appeal perfect for him.Their relationship is cute and Rose's struggling sexual desire is funny. I don't really buy Rose completely as an ugly duckling but the movie is filled with pretty girls and she's ugly by comparison. The first half is a mildly amusing romantic comedy. Then the flow cracks with the big blow up. The amusing little romance takes on some ugliness. Neither characters come off well from the conflict. Both become less appealing and so does the movie. The only fun part of the post break-up is Rose's students seeing her new look. This is a rom-com that doesn't quite fit the formula and suffers from it.
imdb_rater 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.
evanston_dad This mediocre romance was Barbra Streisand's announcement to the world that middle-aged people can fall in love too.O.k., fair enough, I don't begrudge her the sentiment, but the film she made to express it is all soft. It exists mostly as a vanity project for Streisand, who goes from frump to glamour puss over the course of its two-hour running time. Jeff Bridges is always winning and likable, and so he is here as Streisand's love interest. His presence is almost enough to make up for the tired and generic theme song.The film is probably most famous for NOT bringing Lauren Bacall a much-anticipated Oscar, which went instead to Juliette Binoche in one of the biggest upsets in recent memory.Grade: C