MRS. WINTERBOURNE
A film review by Ben Hoffman
Copyright 1996 Ben Hoffman
As an actor, Richard Benjamin always turned in a good performance. With rare exceptions, his directorial endeavors somehow have fallen flat. Mrs. Winterbourne is an example of the latter. What saves the film is the talent of Shirley MacLaine, who plays the title role. MacLaine is a born actress. When, in the film, she does a momentary movement of her hands and head I suddenly remembered that her original fame was as a dancer. The slight momentary movements were so graceful, so delightful, so filled with Class.
It is the story that turns the film down into little more than just another ordinary movie. The first scene is of a man lying on a bed, a couple of bullet holes in him. The TV is on but nobody is listening. He, Steve DeCunzo (Loren Dean), is dead.. How and why and by whom did DeCunzo meet his Maker? Flashback.
Connie Doyle (Ricki Lake) is a young woman on a train but neither knows nor cares where it is going. Homeless, broke and in the last months of pregnancy she is sorely in need of a miracle. The film's author provides exactly that. Based on the novel, "I Married A Dead Man" by Cornell Woolrich, a series of unlikely events happen unexpectedly. There is a train accident and the penniless Connie ends up in a hospital. She is mistakenly thought, by everyone, to be Mrs. Wellbourne's daughter-in-law (also pregnant) who was on the same train on her way to meet her mother-in-law for the first time.. Both she and her husband, Hugh Winterbourne (Brendan Frazer) are killed in the derailment.
Once we have accepted this series of coincidences, the film moves along nicely even to the point where the dead Hugh has a twin brother, Bill. Connie has to keep the family from discovering who she really is while her "brother-in-law'" Bill appears to be suspicious. Because the actors are so good, because Connie is so charming and Bill so handsome we are in their rooting for them. This mistaken identity bit is a kind of romantic comedy . . . and story of a murder. Well told. And, again, there;s MacLaine.
Directed by Richard Benjamin
Rating: 2.5 Bytes
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Ben Hoffman
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