David Denby

“The movie's dumb-farce premise is so convoluted that you waste a good part of your energy just figuring out which sister you are looking at. This is not the fault of the actresses, who are both wonderful in each of their two parts. Midler is particularly funny as the bored country girl who longs for the New York high life and who, when she gets to the city, receives each bauble of luxury--a room at the Plaza, a dress, a kiss from a handsome man--with a small shiver of ecstasy. Midler shifts her abundant flesh with the speed of a dancer--she's become a more volatile version of Mae West. Tomlin has her best moments as the dithering, unwilling corporate executive [I disagree there]…. But Big Business is the kind of mechanical comedy that flees from creativity as from a plague….”

David Denby
New York, June 20, 1988