The Wives He Forgot

He looks like Derek Jacobi, and she reminds you of Sigourney Weaver. It's not them, of course, far from it, but they make a nice performance together, as she finds him knifed and bleeding with a horrible bump in his head, so she takes care of him just for the moment, until he is proved to suffer from total permanent amnesia - he can't even remember his name. That's the start of a long difficult maze into all kinds of relationships and legal difficulties, since it turns up that he has two wives still living, both young and charming. So he is a bigamist and has absolutely no memory of it. The trials dominate the second half of the film, but it is worth waiting for the outcome, which no one could guess. The prosecutor and his two former wives are abominable, which helps his case, but that is not all of it. There are many refreshing surprises in this film, there are some nice elements of humour also, so it is definitely enjoyable. The one thread which is not followed up is the case of her former husband, who turns up unexpectedly without anyone having had any idea of his existence, causing some upsets, he is present at the trial, but he doesn't testify. The final question and issue is, whether any man ever can be trusted at all.

I am surprised at the negative feedback for this movie but then again, I am a big Lifetime movie fan. Ever since I had my son I spend much time watching juicy movies like this! Anyway, I enjoyed this movie. The humor was a little silly sometimes but it is not supposed to be a serious movie. I thought Molly Ringwald was so cute as the amnesiac's love interest. You couldn't help but like her! The movie did not get boring and I was interested to see what would happen. I have to say that the ending was great and totally surprised me. This movie is not a true to life movie and it is as believable as a pink giraffe, but so are most movies.

Entertaining, fun and the typical lifetime movie that you either love or hate. I loved! :o)

Molly Ringwald (looking a bit heavy and unhappy) is a general practice lawyer in a seaside town who defends a handsome amnesiac on trial for bigamy and tax evasion. TV-made mystery has a lightly comic, frisky side and a direction with some imagination. Ringwald is well-cast as a somewhat-kooky modern working woman who can't find a good man, although her frumpy clothes and hairstyle make her appear much older than she is--and older than her character has to be. The movie ends up scrambled like an egg, with a cartoonish version of a courtroom trial in the second-half and an iffy final tag that leaves the whole thing feeling a bit pointless. Molly has some choice scenes, and it's good to have her carrying a film again (TV or otherwise), but she's wound up too tight, and might've benefited from some improvisation, a looser director, or just some breathing room to control her tics and exaggerated facial expressions. The flick is a fun time-filler, though a wispy-thin one, without even one foot grounded in some kind of reality. **1/2 from ****

Have not seen Molly Ringwald,(Charlotte) in a very long time and enjoyed seeing her large brown eyes and the sparkle she always had with her personality and those expressions on her face. Charlotte plays a lawyer who has a very bad time trying to find her Soul Mate in life and gets dumped quite often. However, Mark Humphrey, (Gabriel) manages to drop into her life and things really start to change, except that Gabriel cannot remember a thing after an accident. This is really a comedy through out most of the picture and then it turns into a drama, and you begin to wonder just how this TV film is going to end. The ending will surprise you and all the actors in the film gave an outstanding performance. Great seeing Molly back on the Big Silver Screen where she belongs, what a talent.

I'll second, third, or whatever the notion that this thing is amusing to watch just for Ringwald's performance; having a "real" movie actress in one of these formulaic vehicles kicks it up several notches. But in addition the whole thing is kind of a subversive self-parody of this genre that doesn't take itself too seriously, with some "knowing winks" thrown in by the writer. For example at one point when they are home for the evening, lawyer Ringwald's way-too-good-to-be-true "house boyfriend/client" says something improbable like "shall we see what's on Lifetime" and she comes back with something like "no I've got to work". There are a lot of courtroom scenes where Ringwald is an amusingly klutzy defense lawyer, including scenes with the "evil queen" prosecutor where the jury is comically sympathetic to over-emoting prosecution witnesses; its a bit like a low-rent "Legally Blonde" at times.