While this is indeed an entertaining comedy melodrama, it was better as the very serious "No Man of Her Own", a 1950 drama starring Barbara Stanwyck, John Lund and Jane Cowl. As a typical 90's chick flick, it's entertaining, although a lot of it really it is difficult to believe. Pregnant and jilted by her sleazy boyfriend Loren Dean, Lake accidentally ends up on a train to Boston where somehow she ends up with Susan Haskell's wedding ring. The train crashes and she wakes up in the hospital with a baby and a new family, taken in by Haskell's in-laws who have never met her. Brendan Fraser appear as briefly as Haskell's husband, also killed in the train crash, and is his twin brother who is very suspicious of lake at first. Going against tight as a cranky old women she was playing around this time, Shirley MacLaine is delightfully sweet as the wealthy matron, a former Broadway chorus Girl who married well and welcomes her new daughter-in-law into her family. Only Lake isn't her daughter-in-law, and her constant screw-ups threaten to get her exposed especially when Dean shows back up into the picture.
This is a very likable film, but there are moments of awkwardness that are very forced. Paula Prentiss, wife of director Richard Benjamin, has a cameo as a very obnoxious Maternity Ward nurse, and she overstays her welcome with several not so funny scenes. On the other hand, Jane Krakowski is very funny as a nasty friend of the Winterborne family who is also suspicious of Lake and longs to see her sabotaged. It's also a very attractive production, with Lake struggling to keep up with McLane doing a rendition of "On the Sunny Side of the Street". The film has a very weak moment when it tries to replicate the film noir twist of the original. Still Lake is quite charming for the most part, Fraser always likeable and MacLaine playing a character I wouldn't mind as my mother-in-law.
This is a very likable film, but there are moments of awkwardness that are very forced. Paula Prentiss, wife of director Richard Benjamin, has a cameo as a very obnoxious Maternity Ward nurse, and she overstays her welcome with several not so funny scenes. On the other hand, Jane Krakowski is very funny as a nasty friend of the Winterborne family who is also suspicious of Lake and longs to see her sabotaged. It's also a very attractive production, with Lake struggling to keep up with McLane doing a rendition of "On the Sunny Side of the Street". The film has a very weak moment when it tries to replicate the film noir twist of the original. Still Lake is quite charming for the most part, Fraser always likeable and MacLaine playing a character I wouldn't mind as my mother-in-law.