A bit overrated, but still an amazing film

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

Amazing worth wacthing. So good. Biased but well made with many good points.

The opening scene of Mrs. Winterbourne is gripping. I don't really want to reveal any of the plot, because it unfolds so beautifully if you have no idea what's coming.Barbara Stanwyck starred in the original in 1950, entitled No Man of Her Own, and while the black-and-white version is also very entertaining, I like the remake a little better. The pace is a little quicker, and it keeps your attention better. In this version, Ricki Lake, Brendan Fraser, and Shirley MacLaine are the leads, and they play off each other very well.Mrs. Winterbourne is a romance, a thriller, a mystery, and an all-around cute flick from the 90s. While I won't tell you the premise, the movie centers on a young woman trying to fit into a higher class than she was born into. If you like those kinds of movies, you'll really like this one!

The stolen life plots of the thirties and forties centered around the romantic mishaps of a girl at first destitute who changes her identity and with it finds a new chance at a romance with a wealthy fella. In this 90's outing Ricki Lake is the protagonist as the central girl. It is however her two redoubtable co-stars, Brendan Fraser and Shirley Maclaine who steal the show and are obviously on screen at almost all of the movie's best moments. The story starts in New Jersey and ends up in Massachussets generally following the old plots of many parallel thirties and forties movies with switches from pure movie melodrama to pure movie physical comedy.

This movie was not what I expected at all. One hears Ricki Lake's name and automatically assumes that somewhere her pregnant character will burst into song and tease her hair to the heights, but I actually surprisingly enjoyed her in this movie. Yes, she was a little bit of a ham and her age didn't fit the character, but she did a good job playing the little downtrodden city girl who, through a battle with mistaken identity, finds the family she wished she'd always had.As for issues with her attitude and her changes into a society girl, did anyone ever think that maybe she was not that much of a wild child before, and that her acclimation into society was easier than she would have expected? Come on, who on this site doesn't speak a little differently in front of their parents versus their friends? I know I have to give myself a mental warning to try to keep my tongue from slipping when I visit my mom...seriously, everybody does this to some degree, you just don't think about it. I mean, imagine going to church...do you curse in front of your pastor or priest? No. You'd never dream of it. With your friends after a few margaritas? Yes, often something naughty would come out.With that said, Shirley MacLaine and Brendan Fraser are charming, warm and human. She is absolutely the perfect high society misfit leader of a crazy but accepted clan. She's funny, sweet and caring, and smarter than her son or Connie give her credit for. I love, love, love her in this role! Brendan's Hugh/Bill is a marvelous character. The brief moments we see Hugh are sweet, and we unknowingly get a contrast between the two men when we first see the movie. Hugh's free spirit is an instant draw, where Bill's all business attitude at the start takes getting used to.Others on this site have said that it is unconvincing for Bill to have gone from a bit of a cold fish to the warm, funny, in-love guy that he becomes, but I can see the possibilities. If you can put yourself into the character's shoes, here is a man who's just lost his twin brother and been thrown in with the man's wife. He feels some attraction to this pretty, goofy young woman, but this is his DEAD BROTHER'S WIFE! Society would frown upon it...wouldn't't't it? Besides, he's the more sensible twin. He hasn't found that woman who brings out the softer side, so why change? Well...because something about this girl is so endearing, so charming, that he finds himself warming up. It's out of his hands...he can't help it. He's crazy about her. And when he's ready to rat her out to Grace, but Connie tells Grace not to put her in the will, he realizes she really ISN'T there for the money, and that just makes her more lovable. How could he tell Grace and potentially cause another attack? I won't say anymore about what goes on in the movie, as I've done enough damage, but my mom introduced me to this sweet and funny movie, and I was charmed and pleased with the whole film. The ending was satisfying (and I know how the paperwork *flub* is fixable, but if I explain, I'll be saying too much!) and I came away happy, so it's definitely worth giving a shot! Rent it, watch it, don't expect too much, and you'll definitely be satisfied!

I believe that those who are most vocally panning "Mrs. Winterbourne" are doing so because they simply don't like the genre of light-hearted romantic comedy. As a comedy, not a drama, and especially as a mistaken identity plot bordering on farce, it isn't *supposed* to resemble a true-to-life documentary, OK? I don't understand those who say Ricki Lake shouldn't have been cast in the female lead role. Why? Because she isn't some A-list skeletal blonde? She played Connie/Patricia admirably, and says that this is the role that made her the proudest to play. It was the first role, she said, where her weight didn't factor into the casting. Should she be sorry she's too "average looking" for some people's Hottiewood tastes? I don't think so. Who says ordinary women don't deserve love and romance too?We'll get the obvious out of the way first. Of COURSE Shirley MacLaine shines as Grace Winterbourne. That lady could play a seashell and be absolutely spellbinding. Of COURSE Brendan Fraser has women swooning over his Hugh/Bill Winterbourne. That's what Brendan Fraser does. It's the smaller roles that make the movie wonderful: Loren Dean is altogether tops as Steven DeCunzo, the abusive womanizing lowlife who fathers Connie's baby and then abandons her to the streets, ultimately getting what he richly deserves. Convincing? Hey, I wanted to smack him myself. Nesbitt Blaisdell stole the scene as the homeless man who befriends a very pregnant Connie. "They pray at you," he warns her about a particular shelter, "but the food's good." Miguel Sandoval is truly enjoyable as Paco, the butler. The only small problem here is that Paco's homosexuality is a trait I gathered only from script, not from character development. In other words, I just never would have guessed Paco was gay without it being said outright. For all I know Sandoval himself could be homosexual (I have no idea) and my saying that he doesn't believably portray one could be hilarious in its irony, but it just doesn't seem that way to me. What do I want, a stereotype? Probably. Farces are usually full of them. Farce is all about exaggeration, and exaggeration relies heavily on stereotype.My favorite scene in the movie has got to be the aftermath of the "Sunny Side of the Street" fiasco. Streetwise teenager tells catty blonde débutantes to "f--- off," leaving them flabbergasted with shock. That's funny enough, but then smooth, cultured, filthy rich family matriarch comes along behind her with, "You heard her. F--- off," which was one hundred percent hysterical.There's the scene at the train station where Paco delivers the line, "You are as much a Winterbourne as I am," putting a lump in my throat.I do have trouble with the wedding scene at the end. Connie stops the proceedings (and nearly stops the priest's pulse as well) by unexpectedly saying no. She, Patricia Winterbourne, does *not* take Bill Winterbourne to be her husband. "I, Constance Helen Doyle, do all that." And everything's back on again. My problem is that the marriage license would have read Patricia Winterbourne. They wouldn't have had time to correct it. Which, of course, would invalidate the ceremony, making Grandma Grace Winterbourne's closing line to baby Hughie--"They're married"--a false statement. Oh, no they're not. Also, I am forced to agree that Ricki Lake does NOT look like a character who just turned 18 years old. But hey, if I'm going to be consistent and say that farce isn't supposed to be completely believable, then we can suspend reality for those things too.To summarize, so what if Mrs. Winterbourne is a chick flick? Chicks are half the world's population, guys. Get used to it.