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As a star vehicle, Funny Girl is top of the class, as an actual movie, Funny Girl is a great star vehicle. It’s a towering monument to Barbra Streisand’s reading of Fanny Brice, and there’s more than a hint of Barbra in Fanny and Fanny in Barbra. Not enough good things can be written about Streisand’s performance, which is still her finest hour as a movie star, but this doesn’t cross over into the rest of the film.
Like many other musical biographies, Funny Girl plays fast and loose with the accurate details of Brice’s life and romance with Nick Arnstein. The first half, in which the romance takes a backseat to Brice’s career drive, ego, and indomitable vocal talents, is the clearly superior one, as the second half is leaden romantic melodrama. There’s visible sparks between Streisand and Omar Sharif, but Sharif is left without much of a character to play and whole chunks of narrative and character development feel left out post-intermission.
There’s a whole mass of supporting characters, but none of them are developed. Rose Brice and her friends play out like old world Jewish caricatures, there for a few laughs and broad accents but nothing more. Walter Pidgeon gets one or two memorable moments as Florenz Ziegfeld before he’s thrown overboard to keep the spotlight on Streisand. Someone must have decided that Sharif was handsome and charming, and that was enough development for his character, because that’s about all we get.
So what’s left is Streisand, and the songs, which are a mixed bag but fall into the memorable territory more often than not. It’s easy to forget just how natural a comedienne Streisand can be, given her self-serious and driven nature. Those qualities lend themselves well to Fanny, but Streisand also knows how to play Fanny for moments of intelligence and as a screwball heroine. Think of the range she exhibits in between the comedic “I’m the Greatest Star” and the proudly defiant “Don’t Rain on My Parade,” or the pathos she exudes from “My Man” and the flirtation of “You Are Woman, I Am Man.”
Eventually one has to concede that Funny Girl is simply a 160 minute Streisand special, and it is better if you approach it that way. Naturally the film comes to a close with Streisand really singing and acting the hell out of “My Man,” and it’s a thrilling moment in which she reaches beyond merely acting into some strange level of performing. The serendipity of the character and actress meld beautifully here, and throughout. Shame that the rest of the movie couldn’t match, as it is merely backdrop to her perfectionist, dominating persona. Still, for all of its flaws, it’s one hell of a star vehicle.
