Mrs. Winterbourne (1996)

Pairing Shirley MacLaine and Ricki Lake is probably a violation of 
the recent Telecommunications Decency Act-- coming soon: the 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?  (Rated 
"PG-13"/104 min.)

Grade: C- 

Copyright 1996 by Michael J. Legeros

Originally posted to triangle.movies in Movie Hell: April 14, 1996