SnoReptilePlenty Memorable, crazy movie

Platicsco Good story, Not enough for a whole film

Maidexpl Entertaining from beginning to end, it maintains the spirit of the franchise while establishing it's own seal with a fun cast

Logan By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

alsation72 Spoilers are not possible for this predictable mawkish mess: its as obvious as it is brainless. This film is a remake of "No Man of Her Own", a 1950 clunker which starred Barbara Stanwyck.Obviously Ricki Lake is no Barbara Stanwyck, but in this film she comes across as conniving, irritating and unlike-able. Barefoot and pregnant, she is mistaken for Mrs. Winterbourne's daughter in law. This badly- concocted case of mistaken identity basically drives the weak story.Apparently despite a wedding and impending birth, Mrs Winterbourne has never seen even a picture of her son's wife. Did Shirley MacLain read the script before she signed up?Ricki Lake comes off as a tubby little tomboy; as a leading lady in a feature film she makes a great talk-show host. She says "ain't" a lot, just so we remember how impoverished the character was. The romance that blossoms between her and Fraser's character is not believable; together they have zero chemistry. When the jig is up and the deception is uncovered the family instantly seems to accept it because they are just so darned lovable. Maybe if they had used someone like Sandra Bullock and really made an effort to update this stinker of a storyline ... maybe then it might have been bearable.

sddavis63 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

daveyd_2 I got stuck watching this absolute piece of crap and I am now writing about it to cleanse my soul. Once again I see that without good writers, even great actors, (MacLaine) wished they had called in sick or checked into rehab instead of appearing this achingly painful rehash of twenty different crappy movies already made.And, please, giving a makeover to Rikki Lake is like spraying Febreze on dog crap. You just can't fix that kind of ugly with a haircut and a band aid, sorry. I will never forgive the 'writers' or 'actors' of this petrified turd of a movie. So if this does come on make sure that you have caught up to your significant other and the massive amounts of wine they have drunk to find this celluloid enema entertaining!

moonspinner55 Excruciating, impossible comedy, an adaptation of Cornell Woolrich's story "I Married a Dead Man", concerns homeless, pregnant, incredibly naive young woman (Ricki Lake, three years after debuting as a TV chat-show hostess) coming in contact with a wealthy Bostonian family who believe she's an in-law of theirs. The wonderful cast includes Brendan Fraser, Shirley MacLaine and an unbilled Paula Prentiss, but not even their lively efforts can make this script easy to swallow. Story previously filmed several times over, most notably in 1950 with Barbara Stanwyck as "No Man of Her Own", however this version seems to have a case of "While You Were Sleeping"-itis. Unfortunately, Lake isn't the polished comedic actress that Sandra Bullock is; she certainly tries hard, but doesn't have the soft charm or the innate presence to carry a major role such as this. *1/2 from ****