A PREVIOUS ENGAGEMENT
Starring Juliet Stevenson, Tchéky Karyo. Written and directed by Joan Carr-Wiggin. (14A) 117 min. Opens May 9.
There is no earthly reason that Joan-Carr Wiggin’s A Previous Engagement should be two hours long, since this trite tale of reignited romance is sucking wind by the end of its first act. The general irritation begins even earlier, however, as Wiggin introduces her heroine — stifled, fiftysomething Brit Julia (Juliet Stevenson) — to the strains of Great Big Sea’s “Consequence Free.” Cuz, you know, that’s just how she wants to be (na na na na na na yee ah da da).
So, in an effort to upend her staid domestic life (her husband, played by Daniel Stern, only has eyes for his collection of jigsaw puzzles), Julia contrives a second honeymoon in Malta, where, as a student, she’d had a tempestuous courtship with a dashing young Frenchman. Flush with the foolish idealism of youth, the pair parted ways on the condition that they would meet again in the same place 25 years later. Cue Tchéky Karyo, avec a Pepé Le Pewish twinkle, making bold declarations of love and springing Wiggin’s creaky plot mechanisms into action.
From there, the film is a series of clumsy delay tactics and diversions staving off the inevitable happy ending. The predictability of the proceedings might be less grating if the various comic reversals and misunderstandings were dispersed with something resembling finesse, but the clumsiness of the staging (the principals seem to be the only people in Malta) and characterizations (Julia’s teenaged daughters come off as harpies) exacerbates our impatience.