The Main Event

Exceptionally brassy, brawling comedy set mostly in the boxing ring. Barbra Streisand is a perfume executive with the #1 nose for business ("It's the kind of scent a man can give to a woman, a woman can give to a man, a man can give to a man, a woman can give to a woman, have I left anybody out?"). Unfortunately, she's been embezzled against and has lost all her finances, except the contract to a boxer who no longer boxes (he just spends her money). Streisand and Ryan O'Neal eke out some laughs from the groaning dialogue (a really bad joke regarding Patti D'Arbanville's threat to meddling Streisand is the most offensive). The plot coasts along on the amiable chemistry between the leads, though all they seem to do here is argue. It bottoms out in the final stretch, ending with an extremely weak climax which got boos from the theater audience I saw this with in 1979. Barbra looks pretty sexy though and--braless in T-shirts and showing lots o' leg in her short-shorts--don't think she doesn't want us to notice. *1/2 from ****