Time Share

The divorced American chef Matthew "Matt" Farragher (Timothy Dalton) takes two week vacation to spend with his son Lewis (Billy Kay) and his daughter Daphne Farragher (Natalie Elizabeth Marston) in the Balboa Island, in Panama. The German researcher of the genetically modified vegetables Dr. Julia Weiland (Nastassja Kinski) is also taking vacation in Balboa with her sons Thomas (Kevin Zegers) and Max (Cameron Finley) and her boring fiancé Russell (Geoffrey Lower). Matt gives freedom to his children and has fun with them while the uptight Julia raises her sons with rigid discipline. While driving to the ferry to the island, Matt and Julia have an argument. Soon they learn that they both rented the same house by the sea due to a mistake of the real estate. Further, the hotels and island are completely booked and they need to share the house. However, along the days their initial animosity begins to change while their children get along with each other very well. But Russell wants to marry Julia and Matt's girlfriend Felice (Carlton Elizabeth Gebia) wants to go one step ahead in their relationship.

"Time Share" a.k.a. "Bitter Suite", is a delightful romantic comedy with many funny situations. The chemistry between the gorgeous Nastassja Kinski and the handsome Timothy Dalton is perfect and makes the film a perfect entertainment with well balanced comedy and romance. The teenagers and children have also great participation in the story and this film is indeed worthwhile watching even for the third time. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "Encontro às Avessas" ("Topsy Turvy Encounter")

"Bitter Suite"/"Time Share" (if only the movie could have changed with the title) is a painfully lame German-produced TV movie that is far below its two stars (it says a lot about the current career of Nastassja Kinski that she's credited as a co-producer). The setup is out of a thousand dozen sitcoms - families put together by mistake, neither one getting along with the other at first but... cue lots of arguments, gooey sentiment, and a kids-in-peril-at-sea segment so unconvincing it makes "Jaws 3-D" seem tense.

Timothy Dalton's accent really irritates, but neither he nor Miss Kinski (who manages to not seem humiliated, and who's still a beauty in her 40s) are at fault - it would have been even worse without them. The only consolation is that some of today's far less talented bright young things may wind up in the same predicament one day - it's sad that, like Rosanna Arquette, Nastassja's wasting away in bad TV movies. Then again, you can't come back without something to come back from...

This movie really isn't so bad! It has a rather pronounced "made for TV" sheen to it, but be that as it may, it is still a fun little romp in the sand.

Nastassja Kinski is remarkably likable as the lead female protagonist, and I marvel at her lack of German accent for someone born and raised in Germany. Timothy Dalton is charming as the slightly irrascible male protagonist unexpectedly forced to share his "time share" beach house with that other family. Geoffrey Lower is delightfully nerdish as the... well, nerdish beau/bio-engineer. And the various kids in the film are all very appealing.

All in all a pleasant, wholesome, fun-filled film, reasonably good family viewing (hey, I did afterall see this on the Family Channel, which is precisely where it belongs). And it was nice to see this film, as I did, around the end of winter: those summery beach scenes shot in and around Malibu, California will really have you dreaming about fine summer days and endless beach walking...

Well, when I first heard of this movie my first thought was that it looked like another stupid made for TV movie. But after I watched it, I loved it! The lines are actually funny, The lead characters have great chemistry, and it never gets after school special-ish. And I think the acting was good, and the lead guy's shirtless scene was fine-it just showed him as a regular guy, not some super model. Oh, and Kevin Zegers looked fine!

A very good comedy with a great actor called N.Kinski, who played in a very nice and funny way. It was her first role with glasses and she played the mother of two children, who want to make holiday in a flat. But the flat was rent by another family in the same time. So she was between her man the scientist and the other men, who rent the flat too. He was a cook, played by Timothy Dalton. The film was like "easy listening", just for fun but it understand one of the great forgotten themes in our culture: How nice it is to have a family!