![]() "Funny Girl" is lopsided good when Barbra's there, transcendent during her best numbers ("Don't Rain On My Parade," "My Man" and a roller-skating sequence), and curiously flat the rest of the time, as if everyone were waiting until she got back. As it is, the more modest " Finian's Rainbow" is better this season as a well-balanced musical. It is over-produced, over-photographed and over-long. But the film itself is perhaps the ultimate example of the roadshow musical gone overboard. But it would certainly have been a better musical if more attention had been given to the total effect, and less to Barbra's admittedly great talent. The trouble with 'Funny Girl' is almost everything except Barbra Streisand. Well, this is her first film and that is a pleasant task. I guess we're supposed to look at Miss Streisand, who is nearly always on the screen, instead. There has rarely been a more wooden male performance in a musical. In "Funny Girl," he becomes a cigar-store Indian. We have also seen it all before so there's no reason to rush out and see this film. The problem though is that Ben and Jen don't make a realistic couple. Jennifer Aniston pretty much plays her Rachel character and she's enjoyable. He has walked, talked, breathed, moved around. Ben Stiller is funny but its getting tiring to see him in the same role. Until now, he has always been a human being on the screen. The sets (Hollywood sound stages mostly) and the supporting roles seem designed merely to backdrop the magnificent Barbra. But someone, Wyler or someone, should have directed the rest of the movie. She wants her way on the set, they say and Miss Streisand has been heard to claim William Wyler didn't direct her, she directed herself. Unfortunately, one gathers Miss Streisand is a rather set-minded lady as well as a star. She sings, and you're really happy you're there. ![]() As the film opens, only her mother believes Fanny can make it in show business. She does things with her hands and face that are simply individual that's the only way to describe them. One of the most popular movie musicals ever made Funny Girl follows the early career of stage comedienne Fanny Brice, a role that earned Barbra Streisand the 1968 Oscar(R) for Best Actress. She doesn't actually sing a song at all she acts it. She has the best timing since Mae West, and is more fun to watch than anyone since the young Katharine Hepburn. But it will be her face and her really splendid comic ability that make her a star. It was her voice that made her famous, and that's fair enough. She turns out, curiously enough, to be a born movie star.
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