December 25, 2023

It takes it's time to get going this, but once we've met the characters and it gets into it's swing, its quite an amiable showcase for the star. "Gregory" (Jeff Bridges) is a rather dry university professor who's looking for a distinctly platonic form of female companionship. He places an add and amongst the responses is one from "Rose" (Barbra Streisand). Thing is, she didn't volunteer for this - her recently married sister "Claire" (Mimi Rogers… read the rest.

It takes it's time to get going this, but once we've met the characters and it gets into it's swing, its quite an amiable showcase for the star. "Gregory" (Jeff Bridges) is a rather dry university professor who's looking for a distinctly platonic form of female companionship. He places an add and amongst the responses is one from "Rose" (Barbra Streisand). Thing is, she didn't volunteer for this - her recently married sister "Claire" (Mimi Rogers) nominated her... Anyway, the two meet and rather surprisingly they click. A few rather rushed escapades later and it's clear that the two are falling in love - despite the obvious scepticism of her mother "Hannah" (Lauren Bacall) - and that "Rose" is now ready to takes things to a next level that "Gregory" is scared silly of... Meantime, her sister and husband "Alex" (Pierce Brosnan), upon whom "Rose" has always had a bit of a crush, are having difficulties and with "Gregory" playing his hand particularly badly, well - might "Rose" stray? The last forty minutes or so are well paced with some pithy dialogue and as "Rose" finds her true personality the characterisations begin to come alive a little better. There are a couple of fun scenes with the all too sparingly used Bacall and Streisand sabre-rattling and the rest of it, well I reckon there are some clear parallels with "What's Up Doc?" (1972) as the story heads to an increasingly predicable denouement. It's quite watchable, but you'll probably never remember it or the duet with Bryan Adams at the end.

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