For me, the problem with Streisand doing a film of SUNSET BOULEVARD is twofold.
1. A fifty-year-old Norma Desmond wanting to play teenage Salome is sad, even tragic. a SEVENTY-year-old Norma Desmond wanting to play Salome is just risible.
2. For better or worse, Streisand brings her larger-than-life persona to every role she plays. Yes, it could have worked for GYPSY twenty or 25 years ago. But part of that persona is the ugly duckling who turned herself into a swan through sheer force of will. Ms. Streisand looks nothing like one who could ever have been a silent film star and her public persona (which always hovers just out of sight when she acts) doesn't fit the SUNSET narrative either. It's a shame she didn't play EVITA in the 1980s.
(BTW, I have dozens of Streisand recordings and have seen all her films except the last one. I'm a fan. I'm just not a delusional fan.)