Virginia Williams and Shelley Long in "Honeymoon With Mom"
courtesy of Lifetime Television
"Honeymoon With Mom" (Lifetime)

Shelley Long stars in the original comedy "Honeymoon With Mom" on "Lifetime." She, Jack Scalia and Virginia Williams do their best to bring brightness to a rather dry and complicated story about a young girl who has problems in her life and blames them all on her mother. Getting her relationship with her mother sorted out and finding where she wants her life to go make up the basic plot.

The film starts with Shannon (Virginia Williams) being jilted on her wedding day. Her fiancé (Edward Finlay) gets cold feet and decides they are rushing things. Now instead of flying off to the Caribbean with her husband, Shannon goes on her honeymoon vacation with her mother Marla (Long).

Marla has ulterior motives for wanting to go along with Shannon. Se is the owner of a high powered magazine and she has learned Nick Tercel (Scalia) is the owner of the resort where Shannon is headed. Nick is a famous astronaut who became reclusive after his moonwalk, and now Marla wants to interview him for a cover story.

Marla does get a chance to meet Nick, and they do hit it off. Shannon hits it off with one of the resort employees, but then her ex shows up and wants her back. To top it all off she gets a chance to meet her father who left the family when she was just a small child. 

The movie does have some moments of humor but mostly it is just one extreme situation after another. The characters are painted as so shallow that you never really care about them one way or the other.

The big question of the film is why Shelley Long looks so unattractive. It appears the costumer and makeup artists did their best to make her look frumpy and dumpy. This makes no sense as she is supposed to be attractive enough to draw Nick to her side, and Scalia looks as rugged and charming as ever.

Virginia Williams can currently be seen in the CBS series "How I Met Your Mother." She has a pert look to her and a natural ease in acting, but she does not have enough charisma to carry a movie like this one. Long tries to bond with her and give the story a unified approach but her looks work against her making a positive impression.

The show is enjoyable for its duration but as soon as it is over it is forgotten. It is good to see Shelley Long back on the screen but bless her heart somebody sabotaged the way she looks.

"Honeymoon With Mom" premieres on the Lifetime Channel on Sunday, May 14 at 5PM. This is their Mothers Day gift to the moms of America.

 

 

 

 

 

©2006 Jackie K. Cooper

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