Hadn't seen this film since my youth (a very, very long time ago). I remember liking it a lot less than "Funny Girl", which also wasn't my favorite film of the Barbra Streisand oeuvre, but couldn't remember details. I was an incredible fan of the very petite, incredibly talented woman and saw every film she ever made. Both films are about Fanny Brice, with Streisand playing the comedienne who got her big break in the Ziegfeld Follies. The first film was a masterpiece, the songs indelible. The chemistry between Babs and Omar Sharif absolutely burns up the screen. If the ending was not what I would have liked it is only because this is a biopic. Real life rarely ends in Happily Ever After. The sequel was ... well ... like so many sequels of uber-popular films, ill-advised. Madame Streisand is given a number of songs to show off those singular vocal chords but none are in any way memorable. Just to remind you how much better the music in the first film was the earlier tunes are often played as instrumental background throughout scenes. Odd that they made the choice to actively remind folks that the first film was just better. New love interest James Caan doesn't carry enough spark to light a single candle, a fact that the Brice character acknowledges when she makes it clear that this is the man she settles for. The whole thing is a muddle to highlight big stage numbers rather than individual stories. The only good thing I would say here is that I didn't appreciate the sensibilities of the older Brice character when I was younger. Seeing it now I like the strength of a mature Fanny, a woman who knows who she is and what she wants. She is a woman who has the strength to cut and run, to stand on her own. There is something very modern about her. That's pretty much it, though. Basically a film to have on in the background while you finish a puzzle or do some housecleaning (day 24 of the lockdown ...)
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