I'm going to break my own rules here a bit to review a movie that doesn't involve LaStreep. It's a lovely, sleepy little chick flick called The Mirror Has Two Faces, produced, directed, and starring a favorite leading lady known as Barbra Streisand. The movie wasn't a critical darling, but I love Babs and I decided to give it a try. And boy, was I glad I did!

Rose Morgan is a literature professor, and not a very attractive one at that (well, as unattractive as Streisand can ever be). She lives with her demanding mother (played by the magnificent Lauren Bacall) and thinks her life is going to stay that way until her sister places a personal ad in the paper. It's answered by math professor Gregory Larkin (the deliciously adorkable Jeff Bridges), and when she understands some fairly difficult math concepts on their first date, their friendship begins to blossom, and soon they're seeing each other. When Larkin slips in to hear part of a lecture she's giving on romantic love, however, things start to go a little wanky. He hears her describing the glory of nonphysical, purely chaste love and marriage... he doesn't hear her gushing endorsement of a fully fledged physical relationship, culminating in the memorable line "It feels fucking great!"

He proposes a purely chaste marriage to her, and Rose, knowing she's not likely to get any other offers, accepts. Then another curveball hits; she falls in love with him. After a somewhat disastrous attempt on her part to get a little nookie, he flies to Europe and she goes back home. Needless to say, he realizes that he's in love with her too (with all that entails) and rushes back home. After brawling with the doorman, he informs her that he "missed the way you eat your carrots" and that he "want(s) to be married to you!" Puccini plays, they kiss, everything's happy. It's corny and simply marvelous.

What really appeals to me about this movie is that their entire relationship is built on intellectual respect and compatibility first, but that out of that blossoms the kind of love you only see in the best of romance novels. "It's better than it's ever been, cause we can talk it through... my favorite line was 'Can I call you sometime?' - that's all you had to say to take my breath away!" sings the closing credits song, performed by Streisand and Bryan Adams, and it sums this movie up perfectly. It's the kind of love I've dreamed about all my life. My personal favourite line? "I don't care if you are pretty. I love you anyway!"