Prince of Tides

Barbra Streisand's best film as a director is helped enormously by one of Nick Nolte's finest performances. Nolte plays a football coach who is estranged from his wife (Blythe Danner) and who enters into an affair with the psychiatrist (Streisand) of his suicidal sister (Melinda Dillon). Streisand is acceptable in her star turn, but behind the camera she paces the story very well and provides lots of room for Nolte to inhabit his burdened but likable character. George Carlin is a bit token as a gay New Yorker, although Jason Gould (Streisand's son) is good as a struggling teen in desperate need of a father figure. The whole film is worth watching just to see a great moment near the end where Nolte stands on a street, a bit slump-shouldered and wearing a look of sad resolve. It's great acting at its most minimal. --Tom Keogh