Mrs. Winterbourne follows a tried and regrettably true format for romantic farce: a downtrodden outsider accidentally cons his/her way into a rich and/or loving family, making enough genuine attempts at honesty to retain audience sympathy, but too few to avoid triggering a wickedly complicated scenario. It's a carbon copy of the more charming Sandra Bullock vehicle While You Were Sleeping (released a year before), even down to the handsome brother -- the only one smart enough to sniff out a hint of deceit. Ricki Lake is no Bullock, but she does occasionally come across as a viable romantic lead in this rare venture into such mainstream territory. Even though her daytime talk show had already taken off, the presence of Lake was not enough to put rear ends in the seats, and Mrs. Winterbourne disappeared from the box-office radar to the tune of a paltry ten-million-dollar gross. Richard Benjamin's film doesn't contain any major blunders and it could generously be considered agreeable, but it's just so rigidly formulaic that it contains neither surprises nor specific reasons to cheer it. Close on that last front are Shirley MacLaine and Brendan Fraser, each doing what they do with contagious energy.