MRS. WINTERBOURNE

"MRS. WINTERBOURNE"
(1996) (Ricki Lake, Shirley MacLaine, Brendan Fraser) (PG-13)

Alcohol/ Drugs	Blood/Gore	Disrespectful/ Bad Attitude	Frightening/ Tense Scenes	Guns/ Weapons
Moderate	Minor	Moderate	None	Minor

Imitative Behavior	Jump Scenes	Music (Scary/Tense)	Music (Inappropriate)	Profanity
Minor	None	None	None	Moderate

Sex/ Nudity	Smoking	Tense Family Scenes	Topics To Talk About	Violence
Mild	Mild	None	Minor	Moderate

QUICK TAKE:: Comedy: A young woman is mistaken for the fiance of a dead man and is welcomed into his family.

PLOT:: A mixture of "While You Were Sleeping" and any other movie where a girl from the wrong side of the tracks gets to play "dress up," this story revolves around Connie Doyle (RICKI LAKE), a teen who leaves home, shacks up with a disgusting thief, Steve DeCunza (LOREN DEAN) and gets pregnant. Scorned by her live-in boyfriend she hits the road and accidentally ends up on a train headed for Boston. She accidentally meets Hugh and his pregnant wife, Patricia, and quite out of the blue the train derails, killing the husband and wife. Connie awakens in the hospital having delivered her baby and finds that she's accidentally been given the identity of the pregnant wife, Patricia Winterbourne. She reluctantly goes along with the identity and goes to meet for the first time, her dead "husband’s" family. The mother, Grace Winterbourne (SHIRLEY MACLAINE) accepts her right away, while it takes the dead husband’s twin brother, Bill (BRENDAN FRASER) longer to. He’s suspicious of her lack of class, but eventually falls for her as she does him. The story then continues as Connie’s real identity is at risk as is her love affair with Bill as DeCunza returns to thicken the plot.

WILL KIDS WANT TO SEE IT?: Maybe. Lake and Frasier may draw them in, and the plot may appeal to younger teenage girls.

WHY THE MPAA RATED IT: PG-13: For some thematic elements and brief strong language.

CAST AS ROLE MODELS:: RICKI LAKE plays a pregnant teenager who goes along with a ruse where she's mistaken for someone she's not.
SHIRLEY MACLAINE plays the mother-in-law who just wants to love her daughter-in-law, even if she isn't the "real" one.
BRENDAN FRASER plays the cynical twin brother who looks down on everything about Lake, and then, for whatever reason, falls in love with her.; SHIRLEY MACLAINE plays the mother-in-law who just wants to love her daughter-in-law, even if she isn't the "real" one.
BRENDAN FRASER plays the cynical twin brother who looks down on everything about Lake, and then, for whatever reason, falls in love with her.; BRENDAN FRASER plays the cynical twin brother who looks down on everything about Lake, and then, for whatever reason, falls in love with her.

CAST, CREW, & TECHNICAL INFO

HOW OTHERS RATED THIS MOVIE

ALCOHOL OR DRUG USE: Several characters drink beer in DeCunza’s apartment.
Grace and Bill have martini’s.
The family drinks wine with dinner.
There is social drinking at a christening party.
The servant, Paco, is drunk.
There is social drinking at a wedding rehearsal dinner.
Steven drinks beer in a motel room.

BLOOD/GORE: There are two small blood stains (from bullet holes) on a murder victim’s shirt.

DISRESPECTFUL/BAD ATTITUDE: DeCunza is a thief, and he treats Connie like dirt, calling her derogatory names ("bitch," "slut," and "tramp").
Upon first meeting Connie, Bill behaves like an upper class snob (looking down on those with "lower" class manners and/or behavior).
DeCunza wants to kidnap the baby to get the rich Winterbourne family to pay ransom.
Connie continues with her mistaken identity ruse throughout the movie, although she knows better (and eventually she confesses, but only when she thinks things have gotten really bad for her).

GUNS/WEAPONS: Handgun: Chosen by Connie from a gun case filled with many guns.
Handgun: Taken by Connie to DeCunza's motel room, where she aims the handgun at him. Upon realizing that he’s already dead from two gunshots to the chest, she stumbles backwards and accidentally fires off a shot.

IMITATIVE BEHAVIOR: Connie too easily follows men (and shacks up with one) she doesn’t know, returning to their apartment or train compartment.
Connie continues with her lie about her identity throughout the movie.

PROFANITY: 2 "f" words, 9 "s" words, 10 damns, 6 hells, 1 ass, 1 crap, and 3 slang words for breast (the "t" word).

SEX/NUDITY: Connie moves in with DeCunza's who she’s just met.
She gets pregnant.
The phrase "Did you screw Connie?" is said twice, "slut" once.
A woman is seen in lingerie and a good amount of cleavage is seen.

SMOKING: A woman smokes a cigarette.
Mrs. Winterbourne smokes in several scenes.

TOPICS TO TALK ABOUT: Connie moves in with her boyfriend and gets pregnant.
There is a passing reference to abortions.
There is one slight reference to being gay between the servant, Paco, and a cake caterer ("What are you doing after this?" "I don’t know, what did you have in mind?")

VIOLENCE: At the beginning and end of the movie several characters readily admit to killing the dead man (although they’re just covering for each other).
DeCunza raises his hand to strike Connie but doesn’t.
There is a violent train wreck where people are thrown about in their compartments, and two people die (we don’t see this, but later learn about it).
Upon Steve returning, Connie says she’ll kill him if he gets near the baby. In response he grabs her by her ear and threatens her.
DeCunza is found dead in his motel bed, the victim of two gunshots to the chest.

Reviewed April 13, 1996

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