Funny Girl (1968)
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Funny Girl Movie Review
Funny Girl is a 1968 musical biopic directed by William Wyler and starring Barbra Streisand and Omar Sharif. It’s such an entertaining, energetic and sweet movie.
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“Hello, gorgeous“
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The storyline is definitely standard, but so well told that I didn’t mind it too much. It follows the entire life of Fanny Brice, particularly focusing on her romance, failed marriage and of course her great career with Ziegfeld. Where it does succeed the most is in the career part of the story as that entire first half is amazing, incredibly endearing and also quite funny.
The romance is also fantastic, especially their first couple of dates. I loved them together as they had great chemistry and interactions. However, where the movie falters a bit is in the third act with the marriage problems. It’s ‘A Star is Born’ all over again. I did not mind that it’s not particularly original as that entire part is definitely phenomenally acted, solidly melodramatic and moving. It’s definitely well made, but the problem is that the film which was once greatly entertaining and fun suddenly became a major downer.
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I liked how the film only basically deals with the two main characters and thus both of them are phenomenally realized owing to a long runtime and fantastic character development. Nicky Arnstein and Fanny Brice are two realistic, great characters who share a fantastic relationship together.
Barbra Streisand as Fanny Brice is a revelation. I was skeptical as to how she shared her Oscar in her very first role and with Katharine Hepburn whose performance in ‘The Lion in Winter’ is probably the best cinematic performance of all time. But, once I’ve seen the film, I can see why the Academy fell in love with her as I most certainly did too.
She’s luminous, energetic, highly charming and also incredibly funny with a great comedic timing. She stole the emotional sequences as well as the humorous ones and the musical parts. She absolutely shines in what surely was a demanding, long role and the fact that she killed it at such a young age proves how enormously talented she truly was. It’s a shame that she for the rest of her career never reached this height again.
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Streisand absolutely steals the show and is an enormous reason to see this wonderful film, but Omar Sharif is also phenomenal and actually here he gave his finest performance in my honest opinion. He’s strong in emotional scenes and particularly memorable in romantic sequences as he’s so charming in this movie.
Funny Girl definitely succeeds as a musical owing to a plethora of wonderful and highly effective musical numbers. If a Girl Isn’t Pretty is solid, I’m the Greatest Star is definitely quite a lot of fun and You Are Woman, I Am Man is pretty romantic. Other songs are mostly forgettable, but easily the standouts include highly memorable, charming and melancholic People and enormously dramatic and satisfactory plot point which is Don’t Rain on My Parade.
Funny Girl was nominated for eight Oscars and deservedly so as it’s another great film in a terrific year for cinema. It deserved the nod for editing as, although too long in the third act, the movie is still very well paced. It is also so well shot, obviously phenomenally scored, but their titular song choice over the other two better songs was questionable.
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Kay Medford as the protagonist’s mother is a lot of fun so I can understand her being nominated. Overall, the movie unfortunately won just one Oscar and owing to its second half is definitely undervalued by today’s audiences which is a shame as I still find it to be excellent.
Although Funny Girl definitely falters a bit in its very well done, but still overly serious, downer third act, the rest of the movie is phenomenal across the board. People and Don’t Rain on My Parade are the standouts when it comes to the songs, the film also has excellent humor, a great energy to it, it’s very entertaining and so well acted by Omar Sharif. The main reason to see it of course is for Barbra Streisand who gave her career-defining performance. She’s funny, charming, incredibly endearing and she stole all the emotional, musical and humorous sequences. Her performance here is most definitely one of the acting highlights of the 60s.
