While this film is billed as a love story, it is rather problematic.
Katie Morosky (Barbra Streisand) might be incredibly opinionated and self-righteous but she worships the ground WASP Hubbell Gardner (Robert Redford) walks on. Sure, Hubbell's quite talented but he could be even better and she pushes him to be better, trying to shape him to become her most utterly perfect man and when he finally gives in to the status quo, she wants him to leave her, despite being pregnant with his child, so yeah, there's that.
But neither of them are perfect. Katie thinks she's perfect and certainly Hubbell's friends make too many inappropriate jokes, but Katie doesn't even try to get along with them nor does she take into consideration what Hubbell actually wants to do and she's a pusher. Hubbell, on the other hand, lacks motivation, is somewhat lazy and cheats on Katie, while she's pregnant no less.
While Katie is a strong, unique character, with extreme though valid opinions, I really wish she hadn't crawled into bed with a sleeping Hubbell. While she doesn't really do anything, he's the one who rolls on top of her, it is not a scene that would fly these days and if it was the other way around, well, that would be incredibly problematic. And she nearly forces into the relationship by not letting him leave until she's cooked him dinner, though there is a definite attraction between the two.
However, the biggest issue I have is that despite being completely happy apart, Hubbell just lets someone else raise his child? I cannot abide.
Still, despite the problematic overall plot, the dialogue is still good and the characters have development and Streisand and Redford deliver exceptional performances. And the title song is just brilliant. Grade: B+
Side Notes:
-Pay attention to James Woods as Katie's college love interest.
-They never show the proposal or marriage between Katie and Hubbell and there is barely any evidence that they are married though Katie does wear a ring but Hubbell does not.
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