The Engagement Ring (2005)

Am i the only one who thinks........Average?

Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.

Blistering performances.

True to its essence, the characters remain on the same line and manage to entertain the viewer, each highlighting their own distinctive qualities or touches.

So many bad movies made today but this one is a darling! Patricia Heaton was perfect in her role as Sarah. You will want to see this light hearted movie again and again Made me want to visit Napa again and do a little wine tasting! I wondered how they would handle the situation of the Mom and Dad with Mom's old flame showing back up! Great writing, great directing and great acting by all made it a sleeper that I wish I had known about years ago If your looking for action, this movie is not it but if your looking for love, laughs and funny family spats, this fits the bill to a T! I am not going to give up the ending, but it will not disappoint you!

This is a very refreshing movie. The story is good and the characters are well developed. A very entertaining romantic comedy. Tells the story of two Italian families. One of them, the "De Rosa" wants to buy the "Di Cenzo" land to make a blend of grapes to produce a wine. The is a history between the families for a engagement ring lost in the postal office which makes the unwilling one to sell the land and the other one to buy it. Sara De Rosa, talks to Tony Di Cenzo to try to convince his uncle to sell his part of the land but he says that he will only sell the land if she ( Alicia Rosa Anselmi) returns the ring to him in his hands.This proves to be not so easy to be done. First the is the husband(who is very suspicious of the love of Alicia for him) who thinks that is a consolation price because she never gives hi, "the look".Then the is Sara's boyfriend and fiancé Brian who is talking in the cell phone all the time. Last but not least Tony Di Cenzo is a young man who finds that Sara is more interesting and beautiful than usual.While they try to arrange the meeting of the two families, in the cooking, the wine drinking and the recipes they find love.

If you've loved at all in your life, you'll enjoy this film. Actually, you'll enjoy it anyway, but you'll understand every nuance if you've been in love. This movie dances with every emotion and dynamic one experiences in a relationship of any substance; love, hatred, anger, betrayal, hurt, humor, power struggles, pride, fear. It's all wrapped up tightly in this movie and presented in a tender, subtle, yet gripping way that engages the viewer and gently holds your attention until the end. The acting is great, the emotions are real, and the presentation is lively, interesting, and even informative. I can't remember when I've seen a better balanced film; each role is important in piecing the message together and everyone involved does a great job. Very enjoyable. I challenge anyone to view this film without laughing and shedding a tear.

I'm sorry to sound like a Scrouge, but this TNT film was a holiday stinker! The film's premise had good potential: From overseas, an American GI in World War II sends his high school sweetheart a marriage proposal and an engagement ring, which unfortunately are lost in the mail. When the letter and the ring are miraculously discovered forty years later, one would expect that the revelation would clear up the mystery and end the long-standing feud between two Italian families. But when Alicia (Lainie Kazan) learns about the letter and the ring sent by her former beau Nick (Tony Lo Bianco), her inexplicable response is to continue to be angry at him! This made no sense because it wasn't Nick's fault that the letter and the ring were lost. The subplot of the couple in the next generation (Patricia Heaton and Vincent Spano) also seemed forced and not believable. There were moments in this film that resembled French farce, then turned immediately into Greek tragedy!The dialogue was terrible, and the cast seemed to be reading their lines, as opposed to performing the action and connecting with each other in their relationships. I almost wished that the actors could have improvised the scenes around the basic romantic premise, instead of forcing the emotional life and giving us the impression that they were reading the insipid lines from cue cards. Before the film began, TNT offered this tagline as a teaser: "The holidays are for bringing people together." As it turned out, that line was better than any of the scripted dialogue in the film, and the best character was the grandma mainly because she was mute!