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Mrs. Winterbourne
Columbia/Tri-Star // PG-13 // February 12, 2002
List Price: $24.95 [Buy now and save at Amazon]
Braveheart and Rob Roy.
Volcano and Dante's Peak.
Deep Impact and Armageddon.
Saving Private Ryan and The Thin Red Line.
While You Were Sleeping and...Mrs. Winterbourne?
All are movies with eerily similar themes, one hitting theatrically within a matter of months of the other. The final pairing, which may leave many readers scratching their heads in confusion, didn't draw nearly as much notice in the trades. When Mrs. Winterbourne was released to disinterested audiences in April of 1996, it wasn't accompanied by the sort of promotion that propelled the $17 million While You Were Sleeping to gross more than $200 million in box office receipts and rentals worldwide. While I'm spouting off figures, by comparison, Mrs. Winterbourne was budgeted at $25 million and barely scraped $10 million at theaters domestically. The critical reception was just as poor. Apparently no one was interested in watching trash TV hostess Ricki Lake and the insipid Brendan Fraser make a half-hearted attempt at duplicating the recent success of America's sweetheart, Sandra Bullock. That is, of course, assuming that anyone had heard of Mrs. Winterbourne at all.
Ricki Lake stars as Connie Doyle, a young woman who, while still in her late teens, is abandoned by her low-life boyfriend when she informs him that they have a kid on the way. Without anyone to turn to or more than a quarter to her name, Connie sneaks onto a train bound for Boston. While en route to Beantown, she meets Hugh Winterbourne (Brendan Fraser) and his equally pregnant wide Patricia. Hugh trots off, and the two expectant mothers get to talking. For whatever reason, Patricia feels compelled to let Connie try on her wedding ring. Conveniently, at that moment, the train derails. Fade to black. Connie wakes up in a hospital, fearful of the consequences that the wreck may have had on her pregnancy. A nurse informs her that everything is okay and brings Connie her child. After counting the little boy's toes and making sure all the right parts are present, she spies a tag marked 'Winterbourne'. Just as she's about to correct the nurse, Connie realizes that she has been incorrectly identified as Patricia Winterbourne, as well as that the genuine article and Hugh both lost their lives in the accident. The child is hers, but the identity, spurred on by the opulent ring on her finger, is not. Connie continually means to sort out the whole mess, but things get increasingly convoluted as she's embraced by the Winterbournes, who had never laid eyes on young Patricia. The family matriarch, Grace (Shirley Maclaine), accepts Connie with open arms, but Hugh's twin (not surprisingly, also played by Fraser) picks up on a number of glaring inconsistencies in her story. Romance and oodles of other conflicts, including ::gasp!:: murder, inevitably follow.
Mrs. Winterbourne, if not for the B-list roster of actors and its 105 minute runtime, could easily pass for a sitcom. The film clutches the oft-trodden romantic comedy formula so tightly to its chest that nearly every moment, at least from the train wreck until the fairly clever ending, is practically telegraphed. There's an unmistakable sense of deja vu, and this is from someone who goes far out of his way to avoid these sorts of movies. Brendan Fraser, who hsa proven capable of handling comedy, action, and drama with varying degrees of success, falters as a romantic lead. There's no chemistry at all between him and Ricki Lake, though admittedly that's a pretty tall order to fill. A romantic chemistry without any palpable chemistry is like...I dunno, a kabuki without makeup. The very idea fails on a fundamental level. I'm so accustomed to associating Shirley Maclaine with psychic nonsense that I'd long since dismissed her as an actress. That was definitely an error on my part, as she shines as Mrs. Winterbourne's only saving grace, deftly delivering the film's best lines. It's a shame Maclaine has been relegated to roles in such mediocre films. It's not so much that Mrs. Winterbourne is bad as that it's so run of the mill...the sort of movie where an indifferent shrug would be a sufficient review. The same basic plot has been rehashed in so many films over the past fifty years and in much better movies that there's little reason to bother here. Perhaps instead of wasting an hour and forty five minutes watching Mrs. Winterbourne, one's time would be better spent lobbying for the release of J'ai épousé une ombre or Paramount's No Man of Her Own. Those two films are based on the same source material, but are far more loved by film buffs and critics alike.
Video: According to the blurb on the back of the keepcase, this 1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen presentation of Mrs. Winterbourne has been downconverted from a newly struck high-definition transfer. Considering how gorgeous this DVD looks, I'd jump at the chance to see this film in full hi-def splendor, despite my lack of enthusiasm for the movie itself. Despite being as notoriously nitpicky as I'm reputed to be, I'm finding it exceedingly difficult to find anything at all negative to say about the quality of the video. Take a laundry list of the usual suspects, and each and every one is completely absent. Dust, speckling, tears, print damage, haloing, grain, softness, poor contrast, weak black levels, poor shadow detail, anemic color balance -- you name it, it's not here. Colors are lush and vibrant, leaping several feet off the screen without any smearing or bleeding. I don't know how many times I've used the words "crisp" and "sharp" in the reviews I've written in the past week, but I'm obligated to drop them once again. Clarity and detail are both excellent. The overall appearance is as rich and film-like as I've ever spotted on DVD, and that Mrs. Winterbourne is a catalog title (albeit a relatively recent film) and not a new release makes this all the more impressive. A full-frame version is available on the flip side of the disc.
Audio: Mrs. Winterbourne is a blend of comedy and a smidgen of drama, two genres that aren't exactly renowned for bombastic audio. The Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack is reflective of that. The majority of the audio is anchored front and center, with surrounds limited to random ambiance and adding some additional punch to the score. The film is driven entirely by dialogue, so obviously aside from music and a few scattered effects, there's not really any calling for extraordinarily heavy use of the LFE. What's present is rather nice, though, and there aren't any flaws that I feel ought to be mentioned. There's also a French dub as well as a variety of subtitles.
Supplements: Nothing. Not even a trailer or cast/crew bios.
Conclusion: I don't typically gravitate towards romantic comedies, and the dull and uninspired Mrs. Winterbourne didn't do much to change my perception of the genre. Though there's nothing particularly awful or unbearable about the movie, it sticks far too close to the established formula and lacks compelling leads or chemistry. Mrs. Winterbourne is the sort of film where I'd typically state that prospective viewers would be best suited to waiting for it to pop up on cable television. This disc looks so great that anyone who's interested should at least opt for a rental, though I can't see myself ever feeling the urge to watch this film a second time. If you just can't resist, Rent It.
Volcano and Dante's Peak.
Deep Impact and Armageddon.
Saving Private Ryan and The Thin Red Line.
While You Were Sleeping and...Mrs. Winterbourne?
All are movies with eerily similar themes, one hitting theatrically within a matter of months of the other. The final pairing, which may leave many readers scratching their heads in confusion, didn't draw nearly as much notice in the trades. When Mrs. Winterbourne was released to disinterested audiences in April of 1996, it wasn't accompanied by the sort of promotion that propelled the $17 million While You Were Sleeping to gross more than $200 million in box office receipts and rentals worldwide. While I'm spouting off figures, by comparison, Mrs. Winterbourne was budgeted at $25 million and barely scraped $10 million at theaters domestically. The critical reception was just as poor. Apparently no one was interested in watching trash TV hostess Ricki Lake and the insipid Brendan Fraser make a half-hearted attempt at duplicating the recent success of America's sweetheart, Sandra Bullock. That is, of course, assuming that anyone had heard of Mrs. Winterbourne at all.
Ricki Lake stars as Connie Doyle, a young woman who, while still in her late teens, is abandoned by her low-life boyfriend when she informs him that they have a kid on the way. Without anyone to turn to or more than a quarter to her name, Connie sneaks onto a train bound for Boston. While en route to Beantown, she meets Hugh Winterbourne (Brendan Fraser) and his equally pregnant wide Patricia. Hugh trots off, and the two expectant mothers get to talking. For whatever reason, Patricia feels compelled to let Connie try on her wedding ring. Conveniently, at that moment, the train derails. Fade to black. Connie wakes up in a hospital, fearful of the consequences that the wreck may have had on her pregnancy. A nurse informs her that everything is okay and brings Connie her child. After counting the little boy's toes and making sure all the right parts are present, she spies a tag marked 'Winterbourne'. Just as she's about to correct the nurse, Connie realizes that she has been incorrectly identified as Patricia Winterbourne, as well as that the genuine article and Hugh both lost their lives in the accident. The child is hers, but the identity, spurred on by the opulent ring on her finger, is not. Connie continually means to sort out the whole mess, but things get increasingly convoluted as she's embraced by the Winterbournes, who had never laid eyes on young Patricia. The family matriarch, Grace (Shirley Maclaine), accepts Connie with open arms, but Hugh's twin (not surprisingly, also played by Fraser) picks up on a number of glaring inconsistencies in her story. Romance and oodles of other conflicts, including ::gasp!:: murder, inevitably follow.
Mrs. Winterbourne, if not for the B-list roster of actors and its 105 minute runtime, could easily pass for a sitcom. The film clutches the oft-trodden romantic comedy formula so tightly to its chest that nearly every moment, at least from the train wreck until the fairly clever ending, is practically telegraphed. There's an unmistakable sense of deja vu, and this is from someone who goes far out of his way to avoid these sorts of movies. Brendan Fraser, who hsa proven capable of handling comedy, action, and drama with varying degrees of success, falters as a romantic lead. There's no chemistry at all between him and Ricki Lake, though admittedly that's a pretty tall order to fill. A romantic chemistry without any palpable chemistry is like...I dunno, a kabuki without makeup. The very idea fails on a fundamental level. I'm so accustomed to associating Shirley Maclaine with psychic nonsense that I'd long since dismissed her as an actress. That was definitely an error on my part, as she shines as Mrs. Winterbourne's only saving grace, deftly delivering the film's best lines. It's a shame Maclaine has been relegated to roles in such mediocre films. It's not so much that Mrs. Winterbourne is bad as that it's so run of the mill...the sort of movie where an indifferent shrug would be a sufficient review. The same basic plot has been rehashed in so many films over the past fifty years and in much better movies that there's little reason to bother here. Perhaps instead of wasting an hour and forty five minutes watching Mrs. Winterbourne, one's time would be better spent lobbying for the release of J'ai épousé une ombre or Paramount's No Man of Her Own. Those two films are based on the same source material, but are far more loved by film buffs and critics alike.
Video: According to the blurb on the back of the keepcase, this 1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen presentation of Mrs. Winterbourne has been downconverted from a newly struck high-definition transfer. Considering how gorgeous this DVD looks, I'd jump at the chance to see this film in full hi-def splendor, despite my lack of enthusiasm for the movie itself. Despite being as notoriously nitpicky as I'm reputed to be, I'm finding it exceedingly difficult to find anything at all negative to say about the quality of the video. Take a laundry list of the usual suspects, and each and every one is completely absent. Dust, speckling, tears, print damage, haloing, grain, softness, poor contrast, weak black levels, poor shadow detail, anemic color balance -- you name it, it's not here. Colors are lush and vibrant, leaping several feet off the screen without any smearing or bleeding. I don't know how many times I've used the words "crisp" and "sharp" in the reviews I've written in the past week, but I'm obligated to drop them once again. Clarity and detail are both excellent. The overall appearance is as rich and film-like as I've ever spotted on DVD, and that Mrs. Winterbourne is a catalog title (albeit a relatively recent film) and not a new release makes this all the more impressive. A full-frame version is available on the flip side of the disc.
Audio: Mrs. Winterbourne is a blend of comedy and a smidgen of drama, two genres that aren't exactly renowned for bombastic audio. The Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack is reflective of that. The majority of the audio is anchored front and center, with surrounds limited to random ambiance and adding some additional punch to the score. The film is driven entirely by dialogue, so obviously aside from music and a few scattered effects, there's not really any calling for extraordinarily heavy use of the LFE. What's present is rather nice, though, and there aren't any flaws that I feel ought to be mentioned. There's also a French dub as well as a variety of subtitles.
Supplements: Nothing. Not even a trailer or cast/crew bios.
Conclusion: I don't typically gravitate towards romantic comedies, and the dull and uninspired Mrs. Winterbourne didn't do much to change my perception of the genre. Though there's nothing particularly awful or unbearable about the movie, it sticks far too close to the established formula and lacks compelling leads or chemistry. Mrs. Winterbourne is the sort of film where I'd typically state that prospective viewers would be best suited to waiting for it to pop up on cable television. This disc looks so great that anyone who's interested should at least opt for a rental, though I can't see myself ever feeling the urge to watch this film a second time. If you just can't resist, Rent It.
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