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A Previous Engagement

What's funnier than major romantic mistakes and marital dead-ends?

By Matt Pais

Metromix
May 8, 2008

Critic's Rating:

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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. 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.

Big question: Can writer-director Joan Carr-Wiggin, tackling material that seems extrapolated from “Before Sunrise,” make a case for more stories about the love lives of people in their 50s?

Skip it: Unwilling to discuss why hazy, youthful memories of the past seem better than the domestic routines of the present, “Engagement” merely lists Julia’s problems (Too much laundry! Not enough spontaneity!) without displaying the frustration of falling into a rut. The film’s also more interested in silliness—like Jack bribing a hotel desk clerk and Julia reduced to talking like a schoolgirl—than looking at how the reappearance of a long-lost love could rekindle feelings and tear a family apart.

Catch it: To see Stern salsa dancing with a frisky divorcee. Muy caliente, but why does the movie talk about redheads as if they’re another species?

Bottom line: Middle-aged malaise is certainly underrepresented on screen, and maybe this is why. There’s a difference between pursuing happiness and completely ignoring your family, but “Engagement” might as well suggest that once your kids grow up then the planet suddenly revolves solely around you.

Bonus: Cast your vote about the film’s most unsettling element: Claire Brosseau’s excruciating performance as Julia’s daughter Jenny; “Born to Be Wild” turned into a depressing ballad on the soundtrack; or Julia claiming, "If people knew who their mothers really were, the world would end."

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