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. The two faces of the mirror could have a variety of meanings but the theme that emerges the strongest is the sex and marriage issue. Barbra Streisand removes sex to demonstrate the value of friendship. She plays a teacher who lives with her mother and is insecure with regards to her appearance. Jeff Bridges sits in on a teaching session and admires her methods. They strike up a friendship and agree that sex is ruining relationships. When they do marry the pressure of sex invades her. Intelligent film delivered with wit and humour by Streisand. She previously directed The Prince of Tides and Yentl. She plays a smart yet sympathetic woman of independence and insecurity. Jeff Bridges completes the chemistry as her husband. Strong supporting work by Lauren Bacall as Streisand's mother who brings comic wisdom. Mimi Rogers plays her sister whose husband was the sight of Streisand. Both roles are more or less comic placements yet portrayed with great care. Outside the leads, other roles are either brief or flat. While somewhat predictable it is still a wonderful portrait of relationships that make the mirror worth looking into. Score: 8 ½ / 10

Love this movie because it is a how single professor found her love, which I felt so related to my life.

The surprising fact is when I want to rated it, it turned out I have rated it before! For me now it's an 8, while my previous rating was 7. I think for a movie which had released for almost 30 years ago, it's still so good.

I was curious and checked when I watch this before, because I have no idea during watching. Thankfully IMDB has history record! I found out watched it on February 2009, it's about 12 years ago and the rating getting higher 1 star ?

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. They've come to opposite conclusions about life and love. Barbra wants some love in her life, but Bridges having been burned a little too often in relationships is swearing off sex.

I like what director Streisand did with Bridges's character. I can identify with the students in his class, you spell it B-O-R-I-N-G. There are some people who are turned on by math, I'm not one of them. I sat through too many teachers who could not pique my interest in the slightest and many who were like Bridges as Barbra describes him, having his own math party at the blackboard. 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. She lost to Juliette Binoche for The English Patient. 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. And this review is dedicated to all of us who had to sit through a boring professor having his own private math party at the blackboard.