My Fake Fiance (2009) starring Melissa Joan Hart, Joseph Lawrence, Nicole Tubiola, Burgess Jenkins, Diane Neal, Jason MacDonald, Steve Schirripa directed by Gil Junger Movie Review

My Fake Fiance (2009)   3/53/53/53/53/5


Melissa Joan Hart as Jennifer in My Fake Fiance (2009)

My Big Fat Fake Wedding

Within 10 minutes of "My Fake Fiance" we have met both Jennifer and Vince at a friends wedding and they don't get on, bet you can guess how this ends up. Yes "My Fake Fiance" is a very obvious romantic comedy, a made for TV movie which sees Melissa Joan Hart and Joseph Lawrence paired together as a couple who go from disliking each other to ... well to tell you would spoil the ending but you can guess. What this really means is that "My Fake Fiance" is a movie about how they end up together and that is where it is a bit fun, it still maybe extremely obvious but it has some charm about it, especially the seriously sentimental and sweet ending.

Having met at their friend's wedding Jennifer (Melissa Joan Hart - Holiday in Handcuffs) and Vince (Joseph Lawrence - Together Again for the First Time) do not get on, she thinks he's feckless whilst he finds her domineering. But when all of Jennifer's possessions are stolen she comes up with a cunning idea which involves Vince who himself is having money trouble with gambling debts mounting up and "The Monkey's" heavies hassling him. The plan is to stage a fake wedding and then profit from all the gifts and money they get given, but with both sets of families getting involved what sounded simple becomes quite messy. And not only that the more time they spend together the more Jennifer and Vince grow too really like each other.

Joseph Lawrence as Vince in My Fake Fiance (2009)

So to put it simply "My Fake Fiance" is the classic romantic comedy set up where two individual's end up falling for each other having started off hating each other. It's been done before and been done much greater than this as you can guess the outcome before the credits have finished rolling. But the amusement comes from the set up with circumstances causing them to work together as Jennifer has all her possessions stolen and Vince finds time running out of time to pay off his gambling debts to "The Monkey". How they work together is that they plan to stage a fake wedding and then cash in on the gifts and presents of money but discover that staging a fake wedding is a tricky business when family get involved.

Of course what this means is as the wedding day edges ever closer they start to have feelings for each other, Vince sees Jennifer as bossy but with a good heart whilst Jennifer may find him a bit of a slob but one with an eqully good heart who helps out with her family when her sister is injured. It is all very obvious and the humour of it all from Jennifer finding herself with just a box of scatter cushions after her stuff is stolen through to "The Monkey's" heavies riding around on Segways is a bit cheesy. But it does have a sort of charm about it, you can see the jokes coming long before they arrive but yet they still bring a smile to your face.

And whilst being a hate love style storyline the romance is for the most restricted to the ending it has to be said is quite special. Yes it is all very manufactured and the outcome is obvious but the wedding scene works, in fact it works better than many movies made for the big screen delivering a real unexpected warmth.

As for Melissa Joan Hart and Joseph Lawrence, well there is a certain amount of naturalness to the way they interact despite playing quite flat characters. It is a struggle to warm to them to start with both border on the annoying but as they warm to each other you also end up warming to them as well as their softer sides come out. And whilst they are central to every scene the rest of the cast which includes Rhoda Griffis and Steve Schirripa add to the enjoyment with some cliche, even cheesy characters which end up good fun.

What this all boils down to is that "My Fake Fiance" is to be honest a very obvious romantic comedy but one which is fun and in the end quite charming. There is little which isn't guessable about it, from what happens at the end to the various scenes which lead us there but it brings a smile to your face and delivers an ending which many big screen romantic comedies could learn from.


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