<< back                                       November 28, 2005
Sun-Sentinel
Author: Tom Jicha

The rest of Patricia Heaton's professional life gets off to a pleasant start in The Engagement Ring.

Heaton took steps to assure this would happen. If her first post-Everybody Loves Raymond effort didn't go well, it wasn't going to be because she was at the mercy of someone else. She and her husband, David Hunt, not only act in the TNT movie, they are executive producers. Hunt is a minor player but they have chosen a starring vehicle for Heaton that is an ideal showcase.

The concept is far from original: Feuding families, torn apart by an ill-fated romance in the past, are pushed back together by a new love match between offspring.

Heaton plays Sara Anselmi, a child of California's Napa Valley wine country. Her voluptuous mother, born Alicia Rosa, also grew up in the family's vineyard and almost married Nick DiCenzo, whose family owned the adjacent grape farm. Their union was at the top of both families' wish lists. The contrived misunderstanding that scuttled the relationship drives the plot.

Away in the service, Nick wins a gold ring in a card game. Taking a bigger gamble, he mails it to Alicia with a proposal and a note: If she doesn't want to marry him, she need not respond.

Fate intervenes. An earthquake strikes while the love letter is in transit and it becomes lost. Nick assumes he has been snubbed and never writes Alicia again. She interprets this as meaning Nick must have met someone else and makes no further attempt to contact him.

The bitterness festering in each of them spreads to their families. For 40 years, they become the Hatfields and McCoys of wine country.

On the rebound, Alicia marries Johnny Anselmi, who has worshiped her since they picked grapes together as children. Sara is their child. Nick remains single, playing around like an athlete on a road trip.

Lainie Kazan, as Alicia, offers a plus-size performance, which occasionally overwhelms even Heaton. Tony Lo Bianco is a spirited Nick and Chuck Shamata is a sympathetic figure as Johnny, who has always known he was Alicia's second choice. History of a sort threatens to repeat when Vincent Spano comes onto the scene as Nick's dashing nephew Tony.

Sara, who returns home with her fiance Brian, has had a lifelong dream of blending the Rosa and Di Cenzo grapes into a new wine. The enmity between the families is a formidable obstacle. Nick would consider selling his family's land but not to someone representing the hated neighbors.

Sara is undaunted. She persists in her acquisition efforts. Fortuitously, she finds an unexpected ally in Tony, who prefers running trendy bistros in Los Angeles to harvesting grapes in Northern California. Their business dealings give all the signs of morphing into something else.

Hunt, who plays Brian, must have a well-controlled ego. This is only a movie, but it still takes someone comfortable in his own skin to participate in a story in which his fetching real-life wife is tempted by a handsome, more youthful guy.

By the mid-point of The Engagement Ring, there will be nobody in the audience who hasn't figured out where the story is going. Nevertheless, Heaton's personal charisma, complemented by the high-energy supporting cast, mold the material into a satisfying diversion, which fulfills its goal: Everyone will still love Patricia.