ROANOKE TIMES 
                      Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times

DATE: Saturday, November 16, 1996            TAG: 9611190067
SECTION: EXTRA                    PAGE: 12   EDITION: METRO 
                                             TYPE: MOVIE REVIEW 
SOURCE: MIKE MAYO CORRESPONDENT

STREISAND'S `MIRROR' IS FOR FANS ONLY

Barbra Streisand's "The Mirror Has Two Faces" isn't the complete disaster that many of her critics had predicted. But it's still a heavy-handed, immovable vanity piece that plods along at an elephantine pace.

For a serious drama, that might not be a problem, but this is supposed to be a romantic comedy about two charming, oddball Columbia University professors.

Rose Morgan (producer-director Streisand) is bright, funny and smart. Her classes are packed with eager, attentive students who ask questions. Gregory Larkin (Jeff Bridges) is brilliant but stodgy. Students snooze through his math class, but young women inexplicably find him attractive. (His ex-girlfriend is played all too briefly by model Elle Macpherson.)

Gregory's problem, as he sees it, is that the mere presence of a beautiful woman can render him dizzy and distracted. What he needs is an unemotional, asexual relationship with an intellectual equal.

For her part, Rose just wants to get married. She lives with her brittle mother, Hannah (Lauren Bacall), and envies her prettier sister Claire (Mimi Rogers), who's marrying Rose's ex-boyfriend Alex (Pierce Brosnan). Clearly Rose and Gregory are meant for each other, but which one will first become dissatisfied with a celibate relationship?

Many of the film's problems are self-inflicted.

First, Richard LaGravenese's script repeatedly mentions other films - "Fatal Attraction," "It Happened One Night," "Lawerence of Arabia" - effectively destroying any illusion of reality this one might be able to create for itself. Second, in talking about these other films, the characters often comment on the intrusive and irrational nature of film music. All the while, Marvin Hamlish's lush, violin-intensive score makes the action even more cloying and sweet than it already is.

Third, the performances are universally mediocre. Bridges seems particularly uncomfortable with a character that's little more than an academic caricature. Finally, as a director, Barbra Streisand is unable to inject any energy into a talky story that has virtually no physical action. Note the clumsy way she handles her big classroom scene. The camera tracks intrusively through a crowded lecture hall until the last minute or so. Then it settles down and focuses on Rose as she delivers words of wisdom to her adoring students.

And that is the real purpose of "The Mirror Has Two Faces." The producer-director wants to show how wonderful the star is. The most devoted Streisand fans may agree, but everyone else will have a hard time with this masterpiece of self-adoration.

The Mirror Has Two Faces

1/2 *

A Sony Pictures release playing at the Salem Valley 8 and Valley View 6. 126 min. Rated PG-13 for a little strong language, subject matter.

LENGTH: Medium:   59 lines
ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO:   Lauren Bacall (left), Jeff Bridges and Barbra Streisand
          star in ``The Mirror Has Two Faces.''