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Movies / Upcoming / A Previous Engagement
A Previous Engagement

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A Previous Engagement (2008)

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32 %
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Reviews Counted:19

Fresh:6

Rotten:13

Average Rating:4.4/10

Runtime: 1 hr 58 mins

Genre: Comedies

Synopsis: A Previous Engagement is a sophisticated comedy written and directed by Joan Carr-Wiggin (Honeymoon), starring Juliet Stevenson (Bend it Like Beckham, Truly Madly Deeply), Tcheky Karyo (The Good... A Previous Engagement is a sophisticated comedy written and directed by Joan Carr-Wiggin (Honeymoon), starring Juliet Stevenson (Bend it Like Beckham, Truly Madly Deeply), Tcheky Karyo (The Good Thief, The Patriot), Daniel Stern (Home Alone, City Slickers) and Emmy Award-winner Valerie Mahaffey (“Desperate Housewives,” Seabiscuit).

When Seattle librarian Julia Reynolds (Juliet Stevenson) talks her unadventurous, jigsaw-obsessed husband Jack (Daniel Stern) into a once-in-a-lifetime vacation on the Mediterranean island of Malta she has a secret agenda: a date made twenty-five years earlier with her first love Alex (Tcheky Karyo). But she’s stunned when the sexy Frenchman not only shows up but insists she’s his true love, even though he brought his latest young girlfriend (Kate Miles) along. Did they really live the wrong lives? When Alex storms their holiday villa shouting his love, fantasy becomes reality. What happens when your husband discovers you’ve been sneaking kisses under the bed with an old boyfriend? The absent-minded, flat-footed insurance man takes action, transforming himself into a new man and getting dance lessons inside and out of the bedroom from an ex-chorus girl (Valerie Mahaffey). With one last day in Malta Julia must choose between the husband she never really knew and the man she’s dreamt of for twenty-five years.

A Buccaneer Films presentation, written and directed by Joan Carr-Wiggin and produced by David Gordian (My First Wedding, New France). Also starring Simon Woods (“Rome,” Pride and Prejudice), Kate Miles (“Longford”), Derek Riddell (“Ugly Betty, “The Virgin Queen”), award-winning stand-up comic Claire Brosseau and Elizabeth Whitmere (“The Trojan Horse,” Beyond Borders). --© Official Site
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Starring: Juliet Stevenson, Tcheky Karyo, Daniel Stern, Valerie Mahaffey

Starring: Juliet Stevenson, Tcheky Karyo, Daniel Stern, Valerie Mahaffey, Simon Woods, Kate Miles, Derek Ridell, Hendrik Jansen, Claire Brosseau

Director: Joan Carr-Wiggin

Director: Joan Carr-Wiggin
Producer: David Gordian
Studio: Palisades Pictures

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Reviews for A Previous Engagement

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1 - 19 (sorted by date; UK critics are listed first)
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There are worse movies, but most restrain themselves to only one scene of Daniel Stern learning to salsa.

Full Review Source: I.E. Weekly | comment Comment
05/15/08
Amy Nicholson
Amy Nicholson
I.E. Weekly

Despite the occasional detour into mawkishness, "A Previous Engagement" nicely balances unutterable truths about marriage and love with the comedy that is human interaction and the unending drama that is man and women, repulsion and attraction.

Full Review Source: Variety | comment Comment
05/12/08
John Anderson
John Anderson
Variety
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

[H]its every single damn note in precisely the wrong way... strains for screwball and misses entirely...

Full Review Source: Flick Filosopher | comment Comment
05/10/08
MaryAnn Johanson
MaryAnn Johanson
Flick Filosopher

A little...have gone a long way to offsetting the film's sticky sweetness.

Full Review Source: TV Guide's Movie Guide | comment Comment
05/09/08
Maitland McDonagh
Maitland McDonagh
TV Guide's Movie Guide

This is a romantic comedy where the romance is too fraught with implications for a comedy, and the treatment of character is too flippant for a romance.

Full Review Source: Toronto Star | comment Comment
05/09/08
Philip Marchand
Philip Marchand
Toronto Star

While this slow-starting update of Private Lives has plenty of laughs, the incredibly expressive Stevenson turns Julia's romantic dilemma into something genuinely moving. She makes A Previous Engagement something special.

Full Review Source: New York Post | comment Comment
05/09/08
Lou Lumenick
Lou Lumenick
New York Post

Director Joan Carr-Wiggin intends to strike a blow for frustrated wives and mothers everywhere, but her unimaginative mixture of obvious farce and feeble midlife crisis harangues gives everything the whiff of interminable theater.

Full Review Source: Los Angeles Times | comment 1 Comment
05/09/08
Robert Abele
Robert Abele
Los Angeles Times
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

While it has a good cast and what might have been a reasonable story, it's a movie that lacks courage.

Full Review Source: Jam! Movies | comment Comment
05/09/08
Liz Braun
Liz Braun
Jam! Movies

Though frantic from the get-go, A Previous Engagement rarely finds its feet. Devoid of the fine balance of grace and chaos necessary to any screen farce, the proceedings are slapdash, repetitious and badly overextended.

Full Review Source: Globe and Mail | comment Comment
05/09/08
Jason Anderson
Jason Anderson
Globe and Mail

More tired than the fantasy it promotes, A Previous Engagement aims at middle-aged women with the subtlety of a pitch for bladder-control medication.

Full Review Source: New York Times | comment Comment
05/09/08
Jeannette Catsoulis
Jeannette Catsoulis
New York Times
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

Carr-Wiggin doesn’t have the chops to pull off a romantic farce, but she’s so game for the attempt that we patiently wait for the movie to steer a steadier course.

Full Review Source: Boxoffice Magazine | comment Comment
05/09/08
Mark Keizer
Mark Keizer
Boxoffice Magazine

Stevenson is so incandescent -- so funny, so vulnerable, so awkwardly sexy...that she lifts writer-director Joan Carr-Wiggin's ordinary middle-aged rom-com above all its abundant clichés.

Full Review Source: Salon.com | comment Comment
05/09/08
Andrew O'Hehir
Andrew O'Hehir
Salon.com

There are a few laughs in A Previous Engagement, but not nearly enough.

Full Review Source: Film Journal International | comment Comment
05/09/08
Shirley Sealy
Shirley Sealy
Film Journal International

Middle-aged malaise is certainly underrepresented on screen, and maybe this is why.

Full Review Source: Metromix.com | comment Comment
05/08/08
Matt Pais
Matt Pais
Metromix.com

Alternatively contrived...and on-the-nose...adding up to a cookie-cutter romantic comedy.

Full Review Source: L.A. Weekly | comment Comment
05/08/08
Tatyana Gershkovich
Tatyana Gershkovich
L.A. Weekly

A cookie-cutter romantic comedy.

Full Review Source: Village Voice | comment Comment
05/08/08
Tatyana Gershkovich
Tatyana Gershkovich
Village Voice

A great actress even in a not-so-great comedy is fully worth the price of admission in these far from halcyon days, both movie-wise and world-wise.

Full Review Source: New York Observer | comment Comment
05/07/08
Andrew Sarris
Andrew Sarris
New York Observer

It's the rarest of all things: an intelligent, sophisticated romance with real meat on its bones.

Full Review Source: SSG Syndicate | comment Comment
05/06/08
Susan Granger
Susan Granger
SSG Syndicate

Malta's tourism industry will likely survive A Previous Engagement, a mirthless rom-com that sadistically strands once-prime comedic players Juliet Stevenson and Daniel Stern on the sunny Mediterranean spot in a protracted, sub-sitcom scenario.

Full Review Source: Slant Magazine | comment Comment
05/04/08
Bill Weber
Bill Weber
Slant Magazine
 
 
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