Critic Reviews

• John Anderson, Variety

  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.

• Philip Marchand, Toronto Star

  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.

• Lou Lumenick, New York Post

  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.

• Robert Abele, Los Angeles Times

  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.

• Jason Anderson, Globe and Mail

  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.

• Jeannette Catsoulis, New York Times

  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.

• Amy Nicholson, I.E. Weekly

  There are worse movies, but most restrain themselves to only one scene of Daniel Stern learning to salsa.

• MaryAnn Johanson, Flick Filosopher

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

• Maitland McDonagh, TV Guide's Movie Guide

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

• Liz Braun, Jam! Movies

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

• Mark Keizer, Boxoffice Magazine

  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.

• Shirley Sealy, Film Journal International

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

• Matt Pais, Metromix.com

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

• Tatyana Gershkovich, L.A. Weekly

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

• Susan Granger, SSG Syndicate

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

• Bill Weber, Slant Magazine

  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.

Read all 16 critic reviews