Streisand's best screen performance!

She really was amazing in this film - so funny, fresh, lively, enthusiastic, charismatic, hilarious, vital, and heartbreaking. After being so funny and bubbly for most of the film, who doesn't get all verklempt when she brings all her energy to singing and crying into the camera for the finale, and knocks the song and the film out of the park? One of the great all-time starmaking performances!

And it was her first film... and it was all downhill from there, wasn't it. She lost her freshness and gained vanity, and developed mannerisms that veered into self-parody at times. Some actors grow into their talent over time, and some lose ground with time, funny about that.