Most critics come down in favour, and the praise lands almost entirely on Barbra Streisand. Her screen debut as Fanny Brice is the one thing every review agrees on, from the warmest to the coldest; even critics who dislike the film call her the reason to watch it. Several credit William Wyler with building the show around her and holding it together, and the musical numbers, Don’t Rain On My Parade in particular, are singled out for their staging and camerawork.
The spread is wide. Reservations fall on the film rather than its star: overlong, overproduced, a familiar story, a supporting cast that cannot keep up with her. The New York Times and The New Yorker, reviewing on release, are the sharpest dissenters, both admiring Streisand while rejecting the picture around her. The Guardian, decades later, finds her comic scenes embarrassing, a complaint no one else makes. The most recent reviews are the kindest, reading the film as a vehicle that has lasted because of who is driving it.