Mrs. Winterbourne - * 1/2*

Mrs. Winterbourne is a convoluted remake of No Man of Her Own, that never quite takes off. Ricki Lake stars as a penniless young pregnant girl, Connie Doyle. When Connie accidentally takes the wrong train, she is befriended by Hugh Winterbourne (Brendan Fraser), and his pregnant young wife, Patricia. However, when the train wrecks, the couple are killed, and Connie is mistaken for Patricia. She is taken in by her mother-in-law (Shirley MacLaine), and Hugh’s twin brother Bill (also Brendan Fraser). What should have been the laborious setup for a screwball comedy, actually leads into a timid While You Were Sleeping lookalike. The various elements of this romantic comedy just never come together. The absence of true comedy makes the characters seem rather one dimensional. Brendan Fraser and Ricki Lake never quite connect. And if you need a definitive reason to avoid this movie: Beware the hideous musical number, in which MacLaine and Lake attempt to sing “The Sunny Side of the Street”.

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