Critic Rating
(read reviews)User Rating
Director
Joan Carr-Wiggin
Cast
Juliet Stevenson,
Tchéky Karyo,
Daniel Stern,
Valerie Mahaffey,
Claire Brosseau,
Hendrik Jansen
Genre
Romance,
Comedy
When Julia Reynolds talks her husband into a family vacation in Malta she has a secret agenda: a date made twenty-five years earlier with her first love.
We hate to say it, but we can't find anywhere to view this film.
New York Post by Lou Lumenick
While this slow-starting update of "Private Lives" has plenty of laughs, the incredibly expressive (and too-seldom seen) Stevenson turns Julia's romantic dilemma into something genuinely moving. She makes A Previous Engagement something special.
Variety
Stevenson casts her usual magic in this frankly adult, determinedly lighthearted comedy of romantic errors.
L.A. Weekly
Stevenson manages to deliver a few poignant moments of nostalgia for the pleasures of youth against the stunning backdrop of the Maltese coastline.
TV Guide Magazine by Maitland McDonagh
Even Stevenson, a singularly accomplished and versatile actress, can't do much with Julia's early scenes, in which she's forced to dither around like a complete idiot.
Salon by Andrew O'Hehir
I'm not big on those Pauline Kael-style encomiums to great actors in mediocre material, but that's exactly what we've got here. Stevenson is so incandescent -- so funny, so vulnerable, so awkwardly sexy.
Los Angeles Times
A dreary experience.
The New York Times by Jeannette Catsoulis
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.
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)
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.
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