To better fit her needs, songwriting duo Alan and Marilyn Bergman were commissioned to add lyrics to several of the songs Streisand had chosen to record.

A deluxe edition with audio commentary and music videos for her covers of "Wild Is the Wind" and "I'm in the Mood for Love" was released exclusively in the United States.

[1] Furthermore, she told Ileane Rudolph in an interview with TV Guide that her covers of "Smile" and "More in Love with You" are her two favorite tracks on The Movie Album.

[9] For further promotion, the singer was a guest on The Oprah Winfrey Show on October 14, 2003, and performed songs from The Movie Album; it marked her first appearance on national television since 1963.

[5] Featuring orchestral pop pieces, a theme common within the lyrics on The Movie Album is "mature love", which AllMusic's William Ruhlmann felt reflected the singer's age.

Streisand's cover of "I'm in the Mood for Love", from 1935's Every Night at Eight, is the oldest song that appears on The Movie Album, and was written by Dorothy Fields and Jimmy McHugh.

[10] In the album's fourth track, "Wild Is the Wind", Streisand places emphasis on the romantic song lyric "You're life itself!

[10] She claimed that she had always wanted to perform a rendition of "Wild Is the Wind" after hearing Johnny Mathis sing it live on The Ed Sullivan Show.

[3] "Emily" follows and is the only track on The Movie Album to receive additional production from Johnny Mandel, who is also credited as one of its four registered songwriters.

[10] The singer expressed interest in recording André Previn's instrumental theme "More in Love with You", from Vincente Minnelli's 1962 film Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, after it served as one of the songs in her wedding to Brolin.

Since the track contained no lyrics, songwriter duo Alan and Marilyn Bergman received permission from Previn's family to contribute verses over the original composition.

[3] A cover of Jevetta Steele's "Calling You" is the ninth track and was specifically written for the soundtrack to the 1987 German film Bagdad Café.

[1][7] Streisand chose to sing Jimmy Van Heusen and Sammy Cahn's "The Second Time Around" as she felt the song's meaning becomes "much more pleasant when you're older".

"[12] Larry Flick from The Advocate applauded Streisand for "challeng[ing] herself" on songs like "Moon River", "But Beautiful", and "Calling You".

He applauded it for being a "lush collection [that] reveals a range of emotions"; he also found the album to prove that the singer "remains in a league of her own".

Concluding her album review, Moody wrote: "What Streisand intended as a loving tribute is instead a sterile treatment that is ultimately disappointing.

It was the week's third highest entry, behind Clay Aiken's chart-topping Measure of a Man and Jagged Edge's effort Hard, which entered at number three.

According to the Official Charts Company, the album peaked at number 25 in the United Kingdom,[23] and would go on to receive a Silver certification from the British Phonographic Industry for shipments of 60,000 copies.