Gregory Larkin (Jeff Bridges) is a math professor at Columbia. His students are bored. He is always distracted by beautiful women. His ex Candy shows up for his book signing and he is completely flustered. He asks adult phone sex operator Felicia for advise and he puts up a personal ad with "Physical appearance not important!". Rose Morgan (Barbra Streisand) is an ugly duckling, Yankees fan, and English Lit professor at Columbia. Her beautiful sister Claire (Mimi Rogers) marries her ex Alex (Pierce Brosnan) whom she still holds a flame for. Their mother Hannah Morgan (Lauren Bacall) is inappropriate and pushy. Claire answers the ad for Rose. Gregory finds her intelligence and lack of sex appeal perfect for him.
Their relationship is cute and Rose's struggling sexual desire is funny. I don't really buy Rose completely as an ugly duckling but the movie is filled with pretty girls and she's ugly by comparison. The first half is a mildly amusing romantic comedy. Then the flow cracks with the big blow up. The amusing little romance takes on some ugliness. Neither characters come off well from the conflict. Both become less appealing and so does the movie. The only fun part of the post break-up is Rose's students seeing her new look. This is a rom-com that doesn't quite fit the formula and suffers from it.
Their relationship is cute and Rose's struggling sexual desire is funny. I don't really buy Rose completely as an ugly duckling but the movie is filled with pretty girls and she's ugly by comparison. The first half is a mildly amusing romantic comedy. Then the flow cracks with the big blow up. The amusing little romance takes on some ugliness. Neither characters come off well from the conflict. Both become less appealing and so does the movie. The only fun part of the post break-up is Rose's students seeing her new look. This is a rom-com that doesn't quite fit the formula and suffers from it.