Mrs. Winterbourne (1996)

Fresh and Exciting

When a movie has you begging for it to end not even half way through it's pure crap. We've all seen this movie and this characters millions of times, nothing new in it. Don't waste your time.

The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

if their story seems completely bonkers, almost like a feverish work of fiction, you ain't heard nothing yet.

The opening scene of Mrs. Winterbourne is gripping. I don't really want to reveal any of the plot, because it unfolds so beautifully if you have no idea what's coming.Barbara Stanwyck starred in the original in 1950, entitled No Man of Her Own, and while the black-and-white version is also very entertaining, I like the remake a little better. The pace is a little quicker, and it keeps your attention better. In this version, Ricki Lake, Brendan Fraser, and Shirley MacLaine are the leads, and they play off each other very well.Mrs. Winterbourne is a romance, a thriller, a mystery, and an all-around cute flick from the 90s. While I won't tell you the premise, the movie centers on a young woman trying to fit into a higher class than she was born into. If you like those kinds of movies, you'll really like this one!

My first bit of confusion was over exactly where this movie wanted to go. I imagined it as a romantic comedy of sorts, and yet from the very beginning it was really quite heavy, dealing as it did with young Connie (Rikki Lake) being homeless, then meeting up with a sleazebag and then being tossed out by him when he gets her pregnant. I really wasn't feeling much fun at that point in the movie. Then mistaken identity turns into deliberate deceit on Connie's part (although I understand it wasn't malicious.) Once she gets taken in by the Winterbourne's after the train wreck that kills their son and his wife (whom the family has never met, and whom Connie is mistaken for) the only character who really made sense to me was Bill (Brendan Fraser), who seemed appropriately suspicious of her given the circumstances. True, he was ridiculously obnoxious, but his suspicion was bang on, except that he then, for no obvious reason that I saw, fell head over heels in love with her, letting go of all his suspicions and deciding to marry her! Where did that come from?There are some moments of fun in this. Shirley MacLaine (as the matriarch of the Winterbourne clan) was probably the best part of the movie and provided much of the comedy, and the closing scenes (as everyone tries to protect Connie/Patricia) was quite touching, as was the point that the Winterbournes became the family she never had. There was a nice feel to that, especially because we know that Connie isn't out for the family's money, but just wants the sense of family for herself and even more for her son.There was one huge inconsistency here that just made everything else implausible, though. Bill finally figures out what's going on because he sees "Patricia" sign "Connie Doyle" on a check, and investigates who Connie Doyle is. He gets back a report that Connie and her unborn baby were killed in the train wreck (it was, of course, the real Patricia and her unborn baby who were killed.) How would he get that report? Connie wasn't supposed to be on that train. She got swept into it by a huge crowd of people, she had no ticket, and since it wasn't really Connie there would be no way of identifying the body as Connie. How then would anyone come to the conclusion that the dead body was Connie when no one knew Connie was on that train - and, in fact, no one on that train even knew Connie?This isn't an unenjoyable movie. It's quite touching, really - but it does have a lot of flaws! 5/10

Connie (Ricki Lake) lost her mother at twelve in Hoboken, New Jersey. Because she did not get along with her father, Connie left NJ at 18 and went to NYC. Unfortunately, she immediately hooked up with a low-life named Steve and became pregnant. Steve was less than thrilled with the news and threw Connie out of the house. Although she works as a waitress for awhile, when her delivery date draws near, she finds herself broke and homeless. The next day , Connie boards a train she thinks is the subway but which turns out to be a railway to Boston. There, she is befriended by handsome, rich Hugh and his new and very pregnant wife Patricia. The train derails. Hugh and Patricia are killed. But, by a twist of fate, Connie is mistaken for Patricia and finds herself and her new baby in a private hospital, as befitting the wife of a member of the rich Winterbourne family. She meets her new mother-in-law (Shirley MacLaine) and her "husband's" twin brother, Bill (Brendan Fraser) and goes home to a posh, Boston mansion, complete with servants. Just how long will she be able to fool everyone into thinking she really is a part of the family? This is a nice little film for the proverbial romcom fan. MacLaine is wonderful as the matriarch of the wealthy family and Fraser is his usual handsome, quirky, affable self. Lake seems a bit miscast as the girl with a big secret but fulfills her role adequately. The sets, costumes, and production values are very high. Do you love improbable plots and unexpected, humorous romance? Make a date to see Mrs. W. and you will be in your element, absolutely.

Connie Doyle (played by Ricki Lake) is abandoned on the streets by her former lover as she tells him that she is pregnant and does not want an abortion. Months later, in an advanced stage of her pregnancy and on the way to a shelter for the homeless, she enters the wrong train and gets involved into a chain of coincidences that finally leads to the end that, when the train crashes in an accident, she is mistaken for Mrs. Patricia Winterbourne, another pregnant woman, who loses her life under the shattered heap of steel. Because Hugh Winterbourne had married Patricia only a short time ago in distant Europe, never sent a photograph and is himself among the death victims, the Winterbourne family accepts the mistaken identity, at least at the beginning. Thus, when Connie wakes up at the hospital, she finds herself in a different world, as the member of a wealthy family and with a little son who is enthusiastically welcomed by his supposed grandmother.The main part of the plot that follows this exposition is what should be romantic comedy, from the time on when Connie meets Hugh Winterbourne's brother Bill. However the movie is neither able to create any romantic atmosphere nor does it come up with a single scene that I could find really comic. Of course there are situations that are quite absurd, but they did not make me laugh or even smile, because they were too directly and sometimes crudely contrived.All in all, the movie is not very original. It makes use of a large number of plot elements that we have seen fitting together much better in hundreds of comedies before. And what is absolutely fatal for a romantic comedy is that the central relationship does not work. We see two people come together because it is written in the script, not because they are drawn together by affection.The movie is obviously intended as a kind of Cinderella story for female movie viewers. At least this explains why Bill's part is played by a good-looking Brendan Fraser, while for Connie's part an actress with a more average look and figure was chosen. But it is hard for me to believe that the female perspective would turn this movie into anything worth mentioning, if it were not simply because Brendan Fraser appears on the screen. The only genuine reason for watching the movie could be the fact that Shirley MacLaine plays Grace Winterbourne, Connie's supposed mother in law. She is great as ever and therefore appears misplaced in a weak movie among actors who deliver only second-rate performances.