jleon25
This is another one of these movies where the leading male has no backbone. Is this what the media industry sees leading males as such "MUSH"? Is this what the Western male has become in the eyes of the entertainment industry? Are there no real men left in the writers, producers and directors in the world of movies? Or at least some real men that can influence their perception.I am not talking about men who beat their wives into submission. I mean, men with passion, feelings of other attributes that women can appreciate. Take this jerk of a husband. If his wife went out and slept with his uncle and the rest of the men in the nearby village? I wouldn't blame her. The only thing I would frown upon her is, why did she ever marry the fool?his guy has no clue on how to satisfy a woman. Can you blame his first wife for telling him to go screw his uncle? As for the second wife, well she was more forgiving but he didn't deserve her either. Another waste of time movie. Even my wife said she would have left me if I acted this way.
Scott Amundsen
Most made-for-TV movies come into this world with more than a couple of strikes against them. For starters, maintaining interest is getting harder and harder with the advent of longer and more frequent commercial breaks. And the restrictions placed on the content of movies aimed at prime time further hobble the filmmakers. So a TV movie rating a ten is a rarity; as a result, a six is a respectable rating for this sweet and pleasant vehicle that gave Roma Downey a chance to shed her angelic persona for a couple of hours and play a real, loving, and sexy woman.Roma and Tim Matheson play Maggie and George Weston, a couple on the brink of their twentieth wedding anniversary who are in somewhat less than a celebratory mood. Their marriage has grown cool, which is something that usually happens to most of us in long-term relationships, but which poses a problem for the Westons that they can't live with nor seem to resolve. Divorce is something they've been dancing around for some time, and as the film begins, they have decided to go ahead with it.However no one has told the kids, who in all innocence throw a grand party for their parents' anniversary and present them with tickets for a romantic trip to the Caribbean.Distinctly uncomfortable at having been backed into a corner, George and Maggie elect to take the vacation, figuring they can break the news to the kids when they get back. Meanwhile, a couple of weeks of sun and sand can't be too bad, can it? Well, when you're a couple on the brink of divorce, finding yourself booked into the Honeymoon Suite can be distinctly uncomfortable. And predictably enough, there isn't another room to be had in that hotel, or apparently anywhere else on the island.There's nothing new here; George and Maggie decide to pursue separate-yet-equal vacations, a distinctly difficult proposition to sustain when there is only one bed for the two of you. But there's a lot of good-natured fun here; one of the funniest scenes being one where Maggie gets quite drunk on Jell-O shots and suffers the requisite hangover the next morning as her husband stumbles around the room making her headache even worse than it already is.Meanwhile, a local official, who seems to wear as many hats as Lon Chaney had faces, has quietly taken the Westons under his wing. They apply to him for a divorce; he tells them it will take forty-eight hours to become final. What happens next is so predictable that one wonders if he planned it for the couple, though the movie never explicitly says so.One of the perks that comes with the trip is the rental of a sailboat. George attempts to find a boat of his own, but is told (of course) that there are no other boats available. Long story short, the boat gets scuttled, leaving the couple stranded on an uninhabited island within sight of the island they sailed from but with no way to get back until someone figures out they are missing.The rest is pretty much by-the-numbers, though George is, to my mind, unnecessarily cruel to Maggie, something which is never satisfactorily explained: has she done her share of cruel things to him that we don't know about, or is he just a selfish bastard? Frankly, an answer in the affirmative to either one of these questions fails to satisfy.But Maggie does not, and neither does Roma Downey; when the final and inevitable confrontation between the two comes, it is Roma who bares her soul, as Maggie, seeking desperately to escape what has become an unbearably ugly situation, demands that if George can't love her anymore, he should at least show her some respect for all the years that she loved him...and still does.The reconciliation that follows is, of course, a shade too easy, but this movie is not going for depth. It is light, airy, pleasant entertainment, and Roma Downey is not only gorgeous and sexy but, as she did as Monica on "Touched by an Angel," she provides the film with its heart.I enjoyed it immensely, and even a second look was fun.
Pro Jury
SECOND HONEYMOON (2001) (TV) is extremely similar to BORROWED HEARTS (1997) (TV). Both have Roma Downey as the leading lady. Both have a mysterious Mexican man (Antonio in SECOND, Javier Del Campo in BORROWED), who is much more than he seems, playing the busy matchmaker. Both try to tell a heartwarming light comic/romantic "mature boy gets mature girl" tale.There are some differences. BORROWED HEARTS takes place in the cold north during winter/Christmas. SECOND HONEYMOON takes place in the warm tropics affording some eye candy scenes with a daytime bikini beach dance teacher and one at night showing a very curvy Congo dance party.SECOND HONEYMOON, unfortunately, tones down the charm, and plays up the conflict and comedy. Too bad. Tim Matheson and Roma Downey might have caught fire given enough music and romance. BORROWED HEARTS is a much more solid production. If in the mood for cute light romance, BORROWED HEARTS is the better of the two.
