A Previous Engagement

A braver comedy might have involved characters capable of inviting your emotional interest in the outcome of the story.....Apparently she is constitutionally incapable of giving a bad performance....The film begins with a sitcom set-up, wherein Julia almost meets Alex but doesn't quite.....Daniel Stern's husband character is a doltish, selfish idiot.... ... Full Review

A braver comedy might have involved characters capable of inviting your emotional interest in the outcome of the story.....while it has a good cast....what might have been a reasonable story, it's a movie that lacks courage..... ... Full Review

A few miscommunications here, a few meddling, lovesick daughters there and you've got a recipe for mild screwball romance, even if farcical comedy might not be the best way to capture a lifetime of regret. When Julia (Juliet Stevenson) tells her husband Jack (Daniel Stern) that they should vacation in Malta, her motive is to meet for the rendezvous that she and her ex-boyfriend (Tchéky Karyo, too sleazy) planned 25 years prior. ... Full Review

Writer-director Joan Carr-Wiggin shoots purportedly farcical sequences so deadeningly.... ... Full Review

If forced to choose only one word to best sum up Joan Carr-Wiggin's "A Previous Engagement," I'd pick breezy. This adult romantic comedy, which comfortably presents semi-absurd situations without even blinking, is effortlessly graceful, though about as realistic as a fairy tale (which I suppose makes it no different than the bulk of rom-coms). ... Full Review

American lead actresses on the wrong side of 40 have limited options, and broad, high-profile romantic comedies tend not to be one of them. (God forbid Katherine Heigl would be old enough that her 27 Dresses be wedding dresses, not... ... Full Article

Years ago, I interviewed a Tory MP from Toronto who referred dismissively to what he called "Trudeau's Gallic charm." (He pronounced it "Gaelic.") He shouldn't have been so quick to devalue the product. ... Full Article

Production Stills: Not Available 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... ... Full Article

A Previous Engagement arrives too late to expose the secret lives of mothers. The secret-that older women like sex too-is not only out, it has long been fodder for film, theater, literature, and most recently the bottom feeders of reality... ... Full Article

NR -By Shirley Sealy For movie details, please click here . Writer-director Joan Carr-Wiggin really, really tried to turn A Previous Engagement into a charming, funny and life-affirming romantic fantasy. ... Full Article