The Way We Were

A Love Story with Redford and Streisand making an undeniably attractive pair. Though doomed from the start (by class, ethnic background, commitment), they get in their share of mileage, from college days of '37 to the break-up of their marriage in '50s Hollywood, where he's a compromised writer. Like their relationship, the film works best when they are alone. But with the script glossing whole areas of confrontation (from the communist '30s to the McCarthy witch-hunts), it often passes into the haze of a nostalgic fashion parade. Although Streisand's liberated Jewish lady is implausible, and emphasises the period setting as just so much dressing, Redford's Fitzgerald-type character, whose easy success carries the seeds of his possible destruction, is an intriguing trailer for his later Great Gatsby. It's a performance that brings more weight to the film than it deserves, often hinting at depths that are finally skated over.