THE MAIN EVENT

title: THE MAIN EVENT

year: 1979

cast: Barbra Streisand, Ryan O'Neal, Whitman Mayo

rating: **1/2

In this corner, Ryan O'Neal, who, after starring in BARRY LYNDON and THE DRIVER, is slumming in a romantic comedy. And in this corner, Barbra Streisand, doing what she does best: playing a neurotic woman with a one-liner for everything. Her attempts at Woody Allen is in droves, and for the most part, this film works decently enough: at least during the first half as Streisand, playing an executive who loses all her worth except a tax-shelter fighter far from his prime, turns O'Neal from cowardly loser to a hopeful champion: where she can get all her money back and hopefully, fall in love.