Terrible acting, screenplay and direction.

It is a performances centric movie

It was OK. I don't see why everyone loves it so much. It wasn't very smart or deep or well-directed.

Mostly, the movie is committed to the value of a good time.

A disappointingly watered-down version of the original stage play. Apparently producer Ray Stark was actually married to the daughter of Fanny Brice and Nicky Arnstein and he yielded to his wife's pressures to whitewash her dad on the screen. This has resulted in a very bland adaptation indeed, with the now colorless story occupying an inordinate amount of running time. Lackluster acting by Omar Sharif further compounds the tedium. Even the ebullient Miss Streisand is swamped by the often pointless verbosity of the dialogue. Her efforts to spark this threadbare material into some semblance of dramatic life are usually undermined by lack of co-operation. No vigor or warmth from her mechanical co- star, no effervescence from Wyler's lumbering, heavy-handed direction. Herbert Ross has staged the musical numbers in an equally elephantine fashion. Even his helicopter shots fail to soar. Fortunately, no amount of sabotage can strangle Miss Streisand's vocal talents. Her songs are still the high points of this plodding, pedestrian, unwieldy and over-produced musical.OTHER VIEWS: This garishly expensive but doggedly flat-footed remake of "Rose of Washington Square" dares to downgrade Alice Faye's wistfully beautiful, soul-searching Rose into a self-centered, unashamedly ambitious Brice. Despite her sterling efforts to shape the picture to her personality, Miss Streisand cannot defeat either the dead hands of her co-players or the clinging script. Generally unsympathetic direction allied with occasionally self-glorifying camera-work doesn't help. The best thing about the film is the songs — and the best of these are the oldies. It's fascinating to compare Streisand's throbbing version of Brice's signature tune, "My Man", to Alice Faye's more straightforward yet just as emotionally highly- charged rendering. Interesting too that James F. Hanley's "Second Hand Rose" has been selected for Funny Girl to match the same lyricist's "Rose of Washington Square". Both songs are strikingly similar.

Of course, this is contrived Fanny Brice. If one looks back on her rise to fame, it is quite different than that portrayed here. No question, however, that she was the top female performer of her era and that her rise had bumps and bruises. Enter Barbra Streisand to play this role. She of the big voice and personality. She, of course, is not classically beautiful, but one puts that all aside when one hears her or sees her. This is the perfect casting. What carries this along are the songs and the production numbers. "Don't Rain on My Parade" is one of the most perfect expressions of a song ever to appear in the movie. The more subtle songs that progress the plot and the love story make it a lot of fun. A really fun musical with a sensational talent.

The life of Fanny Brice, famed comedienne and entertainer of the early-1900s. We see her rise to fame as a Ziegfield girl, subsequent career and her personal life, particularly her relationship with Nick Arnstein.Entertaining, especially the stage performance scenes. Barbara Streisand absolutely shines during these scenes. Funny, and with some impressive singing too. The remainder is reasonably good and engaging. Does get fairly schmaltzy at times though, and the mid- to-late section is quite dry as it concentrates on the Brice- Arnstein relationship.As mentioned, Barbara Streisand is great during the live show scenes. She is fine during the other scenes too, especially as there are some musical numbers thrown in every now and again (it is a semi- musical). Streisand won the Best Supporting Actress Oscar in 1969 for her performance (shared with Katharine Hepburn for The Lion in Winter).Good work too from Omar Sharif as Nick Arnstein.

A 1968 musical by William Wyler, "Funny Girl" stars Barbra Streisand as Fanny Brice, a comedienne and Broadway star who embarks upon a stormy relationship with a suave gambler (Omar Sharif).As a domestic drama, "Funny Girl" is mostly routine. As a monument to Barbra Streisand, though, it's a bit special. One small step for Jewish comedians, Streisand takes 1930s/40s screwballs, with their sassy, working-class heroines, and gives them a self-depreciating, unconventionally beautiful, proudly (tentatively?) Jewish and so new edge.William Wyler typically oscillated between daring projects ("The Children's Hour", "The Collector" etc) and light-hearted fluff. "Funny Girl" lies somewhere in the middle, part Hollywood crowd-pleaser, part a product of the 1960s, when dramas strove for supposedly "new" and "grittier" depths. The film ends with an out-of-place rendition of "My Man", Streisand standing before a black background, bawling her lungs out with phony intensity. A better film would have ditched all similar pretences at "heavy drama" and milked instead Streisand's comedic talents; "Funny Girl" works better as comedy than tragedy.Outside of Streisand, "Funny Girl" offers fine production design, some good cinematography and a dashing performance by Omar Sharif. Like most of Wyler's films, "Girl's" impeccably framed and lit. This would be the director's penultimate picture.7/10 – See "The Children's Hour".