By Michael Rechtshaffen
Filmed entirely on location on the island of Malta, this
interminable international co-production is an intended
sun-drenched, romantic-comedic getaway that completely got
away.
The normally irreproachable Juliet Stevenson ("Truly Madly
Deeply") mugs shamelessly as a Seattle-based librarian who had
made a pact to meet up with Frenchman Tcheky Karyo at the same
spot in Malta where they made torrid love 25 years earlier.
The problem is, she's made the return trip with a little
extra baggage in the form of her initially oblivious husband
(Daniel Stern) and her whiny grown daughters (Claire Brosseau,
Elizabeth Whitmere).
Needless to say, all hell will break loose.
There probably was something workable here in a "Shirley
Valentine"/Neil Simon sort of way, but writer-director Joan
Carr-Wiggin seems to have had one film in mind while
instructing her trusting cast to behave as if they were in
another.
The shrill result is poorly paced slapstick with more
urbane aspirations, but by the time Carr-Wiggin gets around to
something resembling poignancy, her obnoxious characters have
long stopped giving audiences any reason to care.
Reuters/Hollywood Reporter
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