<< back                                       November 28, 2005
New York Post
Author: Linda Stasi

"The Engagement Ring" Tonight at 8 on TNT

* * * stars

If ever a TV movie should be made into a TV series, it's TNT's charming "The Engagement Ring," which debuts on TNT tonight.

The story involves two feuding California vineyard-owning families ！ the Anelmi's and the Di Cenzo's.

Forty years ago (although the flashbacks look like it was sometime in the early '50s ！ not the swinging mid-'60s!), Alicia Anselmi had a thing for bad-boy/girl-crazy Nick Di Cenzo. And he had a thing for her.

The only thing about their "thing" was that when they weren't kissing, they were fighting.

This made for a very tempestuous, but always interesting relationship ！ sort of the same kind of interesting combination that would have happened if the two families had ever combined their grapes.

But she was strictly Cabernet and he was Merlot all the way.

Nick (Tony Lo Bianco) joined the army to see the world, vowing to return to Alicia, (Lainie Kazan).

While he wasn't the type to settle down, he did win an engagement ring in a poker game. He decided that he'd mail it to Alicia with a proposal. If she said "no," that would be fine ！ and if she said "yes," that would be fine also. Either way, he wasn't going to be woman-less for long.

As fate had it, a mini-tremor shook the tiny California post office where the ring-bearing envelope was being sorted and somehow the envelope ended up behind a filing cabinet. When he didn't hear from her, he decided she had thrown him over and vowed never to speak to her again. When she didn't hear from him, she vowed to do the same.

He went off to see the world, and she stayed in California on the family vineyard and married the other boy next door, Johnny Anselmi (Chuck Shamata). Together, they grew great grapes and one terrific daughter, Sara (Patricia Heaton).

Fast forward 40 years and Sara is divorced and engaged to business exec Brian (David Hunt, Heaton's hubby in real life), an active partner in the family vineyard producing the finest Cabernet in the Napa Valley.

The Di Cenzo family vineyard next door has become available now that Nick's brother and his wife have died. Nick's nephew, Tony (Vincent Spano), has decided to sell the vineyard and fulfill his dream of opening his own restaurant.

The Anslemi's need his land and Tony wants to sell. The only problem is the two people who each have 50 persent interest in the deal ！ Alicia and Nick ！ have been carrying on a a blood feud that spans 40 years.

And then it gets worse.

Is the happily engaged Sara falling for the bad boy/girl-chasing nephew Tony? Is a second blood feud in the making?

The ring ！ that ring ！ is at the heart of this heart-felt family comedy.

To watch Kazan and Lo Bianco, two genuine pros, do their thing is pure joy.

It's also a pleasure to see Heaton breaking out of the "Raymond" mold and melding very nicely into her own production with her very funny real-life husband.

The chemistry between Heaton and Spano, while a bit strained, eventually works its way home.

This made-for-TV movie could have been yet another Italians-as-cute-stupid-housepets setup, but it's done with a deft, loving hand (what do you expect when the writer's name is Rodney Vaccaro?) and it's funny and sweet without tasting like, well, White Zinfandel.