The goodwill built up by Barbra Streisand and Ryan O’Neal in the hilarious What’s Up, Doc? is quickly dispersed in this lame “comedy” that reunited the two stars. Streisand plays Hillary Kramer, a businesswoman who made a fortune through perfumes – only to have her profits embezzled by her accountant. O’Neal is a financial asset she inherits – a retired boxer who has to fight again to win back the money she is owed. This ludicrous scenario might not be a problem in itself but a bigger issue is that the film simply isn’t funny. Countless scenes fall flat. Often you’re not even sure if they are supposed to be funny. How much did the producer – Barbra’s boyfriend, the hairdresser Jon Peters – have to do with this mess? (While Peters is credited as Producer in the opening titles, Streisand appears to take all the credit for the film in the commentary on the DVD. This is especially ironic as she should have been washing her hands of the whole debacle. Elsewhere on the DVD menus she is credited as co-producer. But if she was, why wasn’t that made clear when this first showed in cinemas?)
Failed humour is one problem, but there are also dodgy themes about race and gender that really don’t feel right. At points there’s a prominent feminist theme, but at other times Streisand seems to be angling her bottom at the camera and showing off pointless costume changes far more than the plot requires. What exactly is this film trying to say?
The boxing narrative is fairly weird and never rings true, but then the inevitable love story (or “glove story”, as they call it) doesn’t seem to work either. Whereas Streisand absolutely sparkles in What’s Up, Doc?, here she cannot transcend the limitations of the script. And that script is so muddled and unconvincing that you’re left baffled rather than entertained.
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