MRS. WINTERBOURNE
A film review by Michael John Legeros
Copyright 1996 Michael John Legeros
(TriStar)
Directed by Richard Benjamin
Written by Lisa-Marie Radano and Phoef Sutton, based on the novel
"I Married a Dead Man" by Cornell Woolrich
Cast Shirley MacLaine, Ricki Lake, Brendan Fraser, Miguel
Sandoval
MPAA Rating "PG-13"
Running Time 104 minutes
Reviewed at General Cinemas at Pleasant Valley, Raleigh, NC (13APR96)
==
Pairing Shirley MacLaine and Ricki Lake is probably a violation of the recent Telecommunications Decency Act-- coming soon: Former Lives of Angst-Filled Psychic Teenagers!-- but since this isn't television, I guess we don't have to worry. The two star in MRS. WINTERBOURNE, a shallow fairy tale that's even *lighter* than such similar fluff as PRETTY WOMAN and WHILE YOU WERE SLEEPING. Based on Cornell Woolrich's novel "I Married a Dead Man," the plot has a pregnant unwed mother (Lake) mistaken as a rich man's widow after a train wreck kills both him and his pregnant wife. (She wakes up in the hospital, with everyone calling her a different name. Sound familiar?) What sounds like the perfect (albeit grim) "Cinderella story" needs, well, a better actress than Lake. She's photogenic enough-- and, of a refreshingly "non-model" type-- but she's too coarse. Yeah, I know, her blunt approach fits the character, but she's still taxing to an audience already contending with logic leaps, telegraphed emotions, and a few too many happily-ever- after's. Directed by Richard Benjamin. Need I say more?
Grade: C-
--
Mike Legeros - Raleigh, NC
legeros@nando.net (h) - legeros@unx.sas.com (w)
Visit me in MOVIE HELL
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