`MRS. WINTERBOURNE' DELIVERS.Byline: Amy Dawes Daily News Staff Writer A wildly unlikely but heartwarming heart·warm·ing or heart-warm·ing adj. 1. Causing gladness and pleasure. 2. Eliciting sympathy and tender feelings: a heartwarming tale. Adj. 1. fable about a down-and-out girl who goes, as the ad line puts it, from filthy to rich, ``Mrs. Winterbourne'' is crowd-pleasing entertainment for the masses. Talk-show host and former cult film (``Hairspray'') fat girl Ricki Lake This article is about the person. For the talk show, see Ricki Lake (talk show). Ricki Pamela Lake (born September 21, 1968) is an American actress and tabloid talk show host, perhaps best known for her long-running Ricki Lake , now slimmed down to leading lady size, cheerleads her way through the tale of a naive blue-collar teen-ager, alone in New York New York, state, United States New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of , who falls for the wrong guy, gets pregnant, and gets thrown out on the street, unwed and penniless pen·ni·less adj. 1. Entirely without money. 2. Very poor. See Synonyms at poor. pen  ni·less·ly adv. .
On the verge On the Verge (or The Geography of Yearning) is a play written by Eric Overmyer. It makes extensive use of esoteric language and pop culture references from the late nineteenth century to 1955. of giving birth, Connie (Lake) inadvertently boards a commuter train for Boston, where she is rescued from her ticketless distress by the disarmingly friendly Hugh (Brendan Fraser), who's on board with his new wife, who's just as pregnant as Connie. Before you know it, Connie is trying on the other woman's wedding ring, inscribed in·scribe tr.v. in·scribed, in·scrib·ing, in·scribes 1. a. To write, print, carve, or engrave (words or letters) on or in a surface. b. To mark or engrave (a surface) with words or letters. with her name. The train crashes, Hugh and his new bride are killed, and Connie wakes up in a plush private hospital room to learn that not only has she delivered a son, but she's being mistaken for Patricia Winterbourne Winterbourne distant from even his own feelings about Daisy. [Am. Lit.: Daisy Miller] See : Aloofness , the woman whose ring she is wearing. Much like Sandra Bullock in ``While You Were Sleeping,'' Lake plays a good-as-gold type who tries to explain to everyone that she's not who they think. No one listens, and she's swept into the bosom of the grieving Winterbourne family and installed with their baby ``grandson'' in their palatial pa·la·tial adj. 1. Of or suitable for a palace: palatial furnishings. 2. Of the nature of a palace, as in spaciousness or ornateness: a palatial yacht. Boston mansion. But while ``Sleeping'' made a star out of Bullock, this time it's really the male lead, Brendan Fraser, who's the standout. After years of playing knuckleheads in minor comedies like ``Encino Man'' and ``Airheads,'' Fraser gets a chance to play a versatile, sophisticated double role, mostly as Hugh's sullen and suspicious twin brother, Bill, who is finally smitten with the scrappy intruder. The tricky transitions in the movie depend on him, and his performance is superb. It's like watching Tom Hanks Noun 1. Tom Hanks - United States film actor (born in 1956) Hanks, Thomas J. Hanks in ``Big'' - a leading man is born. Lake is not nearly as experienced an actor as the others and it shows - she quickly drops the accent of her dopey Brooklyn character and basically starts playing herself. But it works, because the casting is on target. Lake is just naturally a girl you want to root for and a take-no-guff survivor, and the audience that loves her talk show is the same one that will love this populist fable. For as shameless and manipulative as this wildly contrived tale gets - and most of the suspense comes from watching to see how the writers will leap the next hurdle to believability - its heart is always in the right place, and whereas Fraser is the brains of the movie, Lake is the heart. The movie tells us we're all just one lottery win - or lucky train accident - away from being just as good as any Boston blueblood. And why not? Look what has become of Lake. Also giving Lake sparkling support is Shirley MacLaine, who lends her vitality and authoritarian flair to the role of the ill but unsinkable matriarch, Grace. In a great line, MacLaine cracks, ``If it weren't for this body, I'd live forever.'' Richard Benjamin's direction is skillful skill·ful adj. 1. Possessing or exercising skill; expert. See Synonyms at proficient. 2. Characterized by, exhibiting, or requiring skill. , and the movie, with its obligatory makeover scene and wedding party, has the kind of high-gloss, fantasy-land production values Production values is a media term for "production cost." It refers to the professional look, or "polish," of a production. Factors that affect perceived production value may include video and audio quality, lighting, number of errors, and amount and quality of special effects. that have helped make hits out of such mainstream fare like ``Father of the Bride'' and ``Pretty Woman.'' The facts The film: ``Mrs. Winterbourne'' (PG-13; language, unwed pregnancy). The stars: Ricki Lake, Brendan Fraser, Shirley MacLaine, Miguel Sandoval. Behind the scenes: Directed by Richard Benjamin. Written by Phoef Sutton and Lisa-Maria Radano, based on the novel ``I Married a Dead Man'' by Cornell Woolrich. Produced by Dale Pollock, Ross Canter and Oren Koules. Released by TriStar Pictures. Running time: One hour, 44 minutes. Playing: Citywide. Our rating: Three stars CAPTION(S): Photo Photo: Bill Winterbourne (Brendan Fraser) bonds with the ba by he thinks is the son of his his dead twin brother in the romantic comedy ``Mrs. Winterbourne.'' |
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