Though Barbra Streisand kind of gets in the way of her own movie, The Prince of Tides does have some expertly compelling sequences, most chillingly the flashbacks that seriously do justice to Pat Conroy's epic  novel.  Dealing most significantly with the inner child, and the  revelations that can free us, the book and the film successfully engage you  with a rich sense of time and place.  The characters who populate the film  sometimes seem from two different worlds, but I think that is part of the  point.  Kate Nelligan and Jason Gould will surprise you with unusually good  performances, and of course, Nick Nolte does some of his best acting ever  in this film -- the role suits him; even its grander touches seem so - so -  Tom.  The score, by James Newton Howard, swirls symphonically around the  action of this movie, and is achingly beautiful.