The Mirror Has Two Faces

Plot synopsis:
Rose Morgan (Streisand), a shy, plain, middle-aged English literature professor at Columbia University, shares a home with her vain, overbearing mother Hannah (Bacall). When her attractive sister Claire (Rogers) starts making preparations for her third wedding to Alex (Brosnan), who used to date Rose, she begins to feel her loveless life is empty.
Gregory Larkin (Bridges), a Columbia Mathematics teacher, feels sex complicates matters between men and women, since he seems to lose all his rational perspective as soon as he is aroused. After his last girlfriend dumps him after a last one night stand before she gets married, he decides to look for a relationship based on the intellectual rather than the physical, based on a suggestion by a sex-phone service, and places an ad in a newspaper.
Claire reads the ad and answers on behalf of Rose. Gregory is intrigued when Claire tells him that Rose teaches English literature at Columbia, so he creeps in to Rose's lecture about chaste love in literature, missing entirely the point she was making. After a series of mishaps, they begin dating and he is impressed by her wit and knowledge and seems to be fascinated by her quirks and mannerisms, which usually drive people crazy. She is also fascinated by the dashing math professor and even helps him improve his teaching techniques. He proposes marriage, on condition that it will be largely platonic, with occasional sex only if she needs it. The prospect of spending the rest of her life as a lonely spinster living with her mother seems far worse than a marriage on those conditions, so Rose accepts.
Rose's attraction to Gregory grows, and one night she attempts to seduce him, much to his annoyance. He had hoped that by then she had given up on the idea of sex, though he admits he initially raised its possibility. He abruptly breaks off their attempt at physical intimacy when he finds himself becoming truly aroused and fears that it will change the safe comfortable feelings he has towards Rose.
When Gregory departs on a lengthy lecture tour, Rose embarks on a crash course in self-improvement: she diets, exercises, changes her hairstyle, learns to use makeup, and outfits herself in an updated wardrobe. When her husband returns, he finds a very different woman waiting for him and is too startled to express his feelings. She admits that she made a mistake in accepting their passionless marriage, and leaves him. All the while, Rose realizes that everyone, including herself, is now behaving differently towards her altered self, though not always to her liking. Gregory and Rose realize their mutual love has been hindered, not by Rose's appearance, but by Gregory's unusual theories on marriage and sex, and finally recognize their deep affection.

Tags: romantic, storytelling

Review:
If you love Barbra Streisand (and I do) and you love Jeff Bridges (and I do), you will love this romantic comedy.
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.
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.
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).
Well, this miraculous metamorphosis is of course kind of disgusting and I wouldn't be the first person to argue that Barbra Streisand has a tendency to fancy herself pretty much (and I myself was already able to tell so from the unnecessarily long ending of "The Prince of Tides" - a very good movie).
Let me try to tell you, why I voted "7".It starts rather mediocre when Streisand and Jeff Bridges get to know each other, talk some silly stuff and behave like little children.
By the time Streisand and Bridges get married you are tempted to say: "Yes, very nice, but it's crap actually, isn't it?" But you won't think of saying that in the end.The movie is a romantic comedy - containing a couple of cliches, fine - but with a new, non-cliche structure.
What a wonderful movie!Basically Barbra Streisand is a good actress, but she loves exaggerating.
Even Pierce Brosnan is better than I would have expected.Finally, the movie shows us the great versatility of Jeff Bridges: you've never seen him so very soft before (rude as he was in "The Fabulous Baker Boys", cool in "Nadine" or smooth and evil in "Jagged Edge").
In the scenes from Streisand's and his marriage his character is almost eerie - may this be good or bad for the movie....
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.
In this movie you have two people,(Barbra and Jeff Bridges),who are both weary and skeptical about "true" love, but both have different outlooks on it.
Barbra is optimistic and hopeful, while Jeff Bridges feels that the only way to make a relationship last is to completely take the sex out of it and have a loving friendship only,(one based strictly on companionship).
She liked the idea of marrying Jeff Bridges character under the premise of strictly a loving companionship only because her character feels...well,  my goodness!
She continues to say..."Sometimes we're so "polite" to each other I feel like we're two roommates living in a charm school!" Her sister replies..."Just give him a "look" that makes him "know" you want sex!" Barbra's character then replies..."I tried that once.
For all those people out there who are thinking 'how could a movie directed by and starring Barbra Streisand be good?' please leave your preconceptions at the door!
This film, in my opinion, is a thoroughly enjoyable and delightful romantic comedy.Babs stars as Rose, a Professor of Literature at Columbia University in New York who is basically, desperate and dateless.
When Rose's sister (Mimi Rogers) answers the ad on her behalf, the 2 begin a relationship that eventually reveals what love is really all about.This film is funny, moving and romantic.
The Mirror Has Two Faces is one of those old fashioned romance stories, in which Barbra Streisand and Jeff Bridges prove that love can be had in middle age and romance might even be better at that point.Both Streisand and Bridges are a pair of Columbia University professors, she of English, him of Mathematics.
Barbra wants some love in her life, but Bridges having been burned a little too often in relationships is swearing off sex.
No one ever made it relevant for me in my academic career.Barbra didn't do too bad with the rest of the cast which includes her mother Lauren Bacall, her sister Mimi Rogers, her wolfish brother-in-law Pierce Brosnan, best friend Brenda Vaccaro, and Bridges best friend George Segal who is a cheerful middle aged hedonist and loving every minute of it.Lauren Bacall got her one Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress and I thought sure she would cap her career with that Oscar.
But Bacall is absolutely stunning as the mother who Barbra convinces that her life isn't over either.For the acclaim it got, The Mirror Has Two Faces should have gotten a lot more, including a Best Director nomination for Barbra Streisand.
Though MIRROR doesn't match her previous two directorial efforts, Streisand does once again pull off the various actress/producer/director roles with great efficiently, and this results in an effective star vehicle for the then-54-year-old film legend.
Mimi Rogers is also fun as Streisand's slutty younger sister, as is Brenda Vaccaro as her self-deprecating best friend - although Pierce Brosnan is wasted as a gigolo-like suitor.
The Mirror Has Two Faces is filled with some rather good one-liners, except that Barbra Streisand simply cannot deliver them properly -- her annoying loser of a boyfriend played by Jeff Bridges is equally terrible.
My main reaction: this is a great illustration of how much fun it must be to be able to make yourself just the movie you want to.In this movie, Barbra Streisand is able to do the following: be a super-smart but plain-looking woman professor who is loved by her students; as this character, and against her expectations, get herself a man who's both hunky and brilliant (Jeff Bridges); go through an ugly duckling-swan transformation; and have Lauren Bacall for her mother (though the mother is pretty toxic until fairly far along).Pretty satisfying if you're looking for a feel-good story with a bit of a feminist spin.
'The Mirror Has Two Faces' is simple, sweet and a majorly entertaining film directed by the Legendary Barbra Streisand.'The Mirror Has Two Faces' works big time, because it has a story to tell...
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.
Streisand mounts one of her most entertaining and romantic films with THE MIRROR HAS TWO FACES, a beguiling story about a romance between two lonely college professors that ends up turning into a platonic marriage.
You just want to take Gregory in your arms and say, "It's OK, baby, it's OK..." Streisand has directed this film with a surprising amount of quiet sensibility and has given us an albeit predictable, totally winning romantic comedy..
I love Streisand and think she is one of the most talented people ever born, but this movie is total garbage and unworthy of the great cast she assembled.
It's the story of Gregory and Rose, played by Jeff Bridges and Barbra Streisand.
In the first "face" of the mirror, Barbra Streisand and Jeff Bridges are both professors at the same college.
Most people would want someone they find enormously handsome-I've never forgiven Jeff Bridges for The Big Lebowski, so I was drooling over Pierce Brosnan in this movie-to fall in love with their insides and outsides, even if they aren't considered attractive, rarely doll up, and if attraction was taken off the table long ago.
Rose Morgan (Barbra Streisand) is an ugly duckling, Yankees fan, and English Lit professor at Columbia.
The Mirror has Two Faces is a very beautiful movie, directed by the brilliant Barbra Streisand.
It tells the story about Gregory, a math teacher at Columbian University, who doesn't believe that sex and love should go together, that's the reason why he meets Rose, because he wants a relationship without sex.
When they get married Rose needs to feel different things but Gregory does not want to have sex with her, so Rose decides to change his appearance for her husband, but she does not know that Gregory loves her just in the way she is.
Great performances from Barbra Sreisand who plays a wonderful Rose Morgan, who doesn't believe in her real beauty, and Jeff Bridges who plays the professor who is not interested in sex, Gregory.
Without doubts is one of the best movies from 1996 and is one of the best romantic films ever, because it shows very well the real mean of love, that it is stronger than another things without importance.
If you love Barbra Sreisand's movies, and good love stories you have to see "The Mirror Has Two Faces".
In "The Mirror has Two Faces" as in his adaptation of "The Bridges of Madison County" and his directorial effort "Living out Loud", he finds a unique way of intellectualizing love in his story lines and resolves what the mind has assembled with a pure emotional pay-off.
LaGravenese always finds the perfect traits for his characters, and the speech Rose give's at the beginning in front of her class is such a beautifully crafted soliloquy about love, and especially our fear of and pining for it, that it could be recited on its own.When it comes to the matter of the heart we are all at the mercy (not to say slaves) of our feelings and as far as traditional American movie-making is concerned there are very few others like Mr. LaGravenese.
Sometimes I think she develops these story lines out of some deep-felt inferiority complex; if that is true, it is certainly unwarranted.I look at "Prince of Tides," "The Way We Were," "Yentl," and "Funny Girl" (which still happens to be my all-time favorite.
Multi talented,  Barbra Streisand (Yentl, Funny Lady),  directed and played  Rose Morgan, a professor of Romantic Literature at Columbia University, who knows how to teach well.
Claire sets Rose up on a blind date because she finds an add in the newspaper of a man looking for a date, who turns out to be Gregory Larkin, also a professor (of  mathematics) at Columbia University who is very boring, played by Jeff Bridges (The Fabulous Baker Boys) who's best friend is Henry Fine, George Segal (Lost and Found) a lots of male perspective on their dialogue.
Barbra Streisand and Jeff Bridges do a fantastic job in this funny and romantic comedy.
I was in writing class when i watched " The Mirror has Two Faces.' I was excited, for our teacher told us it was about a unique love story, and a woman who struggled with her self image.
A fresh appearance can't instantaneously change things, however; Rose is forced to decide whether she wants to continue being a part of a sexless coupling.It's ironic that so much of "The Mirror Has Two Faces" is spent criticizing cinematic romantic comedies for being so manipulative, with their obligatory happy endings and scheming instances of mood music.
Likability is nearly a distraction; this is far from an excellent film, but Streisand's indestructible appeal makes it impossible not to slightly, slightly hope that Rose and Gregory will, against the odds, have sex (GASP!) and live happily ever after.Fans of the immortal Babs will figure that the film is the best thing since chicken fried steak; but those who simply appreciate her star power (me) won't be so sold.
Most of "The Mirror Has Two Faces" is formulaic romantic comedy-drama glitter, set to the tune of your grandma's movie preferences (not a bad thing; formula can be effective, and the film is good); its bright spot is Bacall, who steps out from behind Streisand's Hallmark sheen and represents something real.
Romance-comedy much in the vain of "The Ugly Duckling," that is played by Streisand, who does the possible by once again miscasting herself as a frumpy waif, while Bridges struggles through his lines like a 20 year old on prom night.
While she shows a sure hand in maneuvering the inevitable shenanigans of a romantic comedy, the multi-hyphenated legend lets her intractable need to convey serious-minded, self-esteem-oriented messages weigh this 1996 movie down considerably.At an epic length of 130 minutes, the story, adapted by Richard LaGravenese from a forgotten 1958 French film, is quite slight as it focuses on Rose Morgan, a wildly popular Columbia literature professor but also a fortyish, baseball-obsessed frump long in the shadow of her beautiful sister Claire and glamorous mother Hannah.
This leads to a physical transformation and a message-driven finale.As Rose, Streisand is quite good and sympathetic most of the way, even if she never looks terribly frumpy and overdoes her character's magnetic speaking skills in the lecture hall.
Looking more like his uni-browed brother and father as he grows older, Jeff Bridges plays Greg as a befuddling stereotype who grows more unrealistic as the story evolves.At the time of release, Lauren Bacall received all sorts of kudos as Hannah, though it is a relatively superficial performance in a showy role except for a wonderfully brave, make-up-free scene where Hannah admits to Rose how she valued her beauty while it lasted.
I really did enjoy "The mirror has two faces", okay some bits were a bit silly but its the type of movie that you can sit down and watch several times (not in one session mind you).Barbra plays Mimi's older sister Gerardo, not younger.
So some bits where hard to believe but I did not think Barbra did too badly for playing a woman in her late thirties - if I could only look that good when I hit 55.If you enjoy a good love story and a happy ending then I can recommend this movie..
Barbra is very good in her own way, Jeff Bridges is gorgeous, smart, and looking so good in this movie.
I always like a movie Barbra acted, actually she's not a real actor but her job is excellent.
What a great film, Barbra is a stunting woman and Jeff mm mm delightful don't you all think, Pierce was entertaining and of course George was funny being Jeff good friend, this film will make you laugh, cry, and a up lifting if you have had a bad day.
Jeff Bridges, Barbra Streisand, George Segal, and Lauren Bacall give outstanding performances.
Fantastic cast lead by Barbra Streisand, Jeff Bridges, Lauren Bacall and Mimi Rogers.
Regardless of its mixed reviews, I firmly believe that this is Barbra Streisand's best work to date ( The Way We Were was also truly her #1 film!).
The film is revolves around two very unique characters (Barbra, and Jeff Bridges) , and tells how they have been hurt from failed past relationships.
Barbra's character,Romantic Literature Professor, Rose Morgan, gives Math Professor, Gregory Larkin (Jeff Bridges), this notion after he steps in to one of her classes where she is teaching a lesson about relationships, and how sex ruins it.
Barbara Streisand, 55, with Pierce Brosnan (lord he doesn't even look like he's 40) is a little much, but otherwise the storyline with the acting was great.
Lauren bacall is brilliantly cast as Barbra's mother - a woman who has been beautiful all of her life, and Jeff Bridges is great as a man who looks for something deeper than sexual attraction.
I thought that the film was well cast, and that the chemistry between Jeff Bridges and barbra Streisand was apparent - even though the script required them to feel uncomfortable around each other.
The acting is sensational on all fronts, especially from Barbra Streisand, Jeff Bridges and Lauren Bacall who are its standouts.
If you like Barbra Streisand, you will love the movie.
It has a sympathetic main character(Barbra Streisand's Rose), a charming good looking man that falls in love with her (Jeff Bridges) and a great supporting cast(including an Oscar deserving performance from Lauren Bacall).
Those who are familiarized with Streisand's previous work (Yentl, The prince of tides) will agree that she loves to be the center of her movies, and she hurts her films by making this, and "The mirror has two faces " is not the exception.The story centers on Rose Morgan(Barbra Streisand), a literature teacher in Columbia's University, and on Gregory Larkin(Jeff Bridges), a math teacher on the same university.
But when Rose looks for it, Gregory argues with her and she decides to go to her home with her mother(Lauren Bacall).Until this point of the film, Streisand looks at her character(Rose) with objectivity, never making of her a very desirable good looking woman.
I don't understand the meaning of the title, although the leading actress did look in the mirror quite a bit, anyway, what appealed to me about seeing this film was a good cast, and the fact that produced and directed by Barbra Streisand.
Basically college professor Gregory Larkin (Jeff Bridges) has been let down with sexual relationships many times, and places a personal advert to find a woman companion, only condition a good knowledge of something, and he has no care of looks and (although they wouldn't know) no sex appeal or interest.
There is an unintentionally funny scene in which Bridges lists why he is so attracted to Barbra: he says something like "I love her eyes...
All my life I pretty much avoided films starring Jeff Bridges (although I really liked his brother Beau).
Mirror's Two Faces Are Barbra Streisand and Jeff Bridges..
The Mirror Has Two Faces (1996): Dir: Barbra Streisand / Cast: Barbra Streisand, Jeff Bridges, Lauren Bacall, Mimi Rogers, George Segal: Clever romantic comedy regarding relationships and our warped expectations.
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).
Bacall steals every scene she is in and has the best one-liners, Bridges and Streisand also do a great job.
The end result is a film that is pleasant, if a bit predictable.Ms. Streisand plays Rose Morgan an English literature professor at Columbia University.