My Fake Fiancé

My Fake Fiancé
Promotional poster featuring Melissa Joan Hart and Joey Lawrence.
Directed by	Gil Junger
Produced by	Craig McNeil
Written by	Howard March
Starring	Melissa Joan Hart Joey Lawrence
Distributed by	ABC Family
Release date(s)	April 19, 2009
Running time	90min.
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$5,000,000

My Fake Fiancé is a 2009 TV film starring Melissa Joan Hart and Joey Lawrence. It premiered on the ABC Family channel on April 19, 2009.

Plot synopsis

Jennifer Verti, a young woman with no interest in love, has just bought her first house and spent all her savings on the down payment. Shortly thereafter, all of her belongings are stolen. Vince is a ladies' man and a gambler, who is down on his luck and owes a large debt to a man named "The Monkey" (real name is Eugene). As fate would have it, they are seated next to each other when they attend a wedding. They both are in awe at how much cash and gifts a bride and groom get, and begin thinking about how easy it would be to get their lives back on track with that kind of income. A week later they meet for lunch and stage a fake romance and engagement.

In the beginning, it's just a simple lie they tell their family and friends. However, as time goes on, and Vince begins to grow on both Jennifer and her family, the lie becomes increasingly harder to sustain. Both Jennifer and Vince are put to the test a few times throughout the film, such as when Vince goes to Gambler's Anonymous and meets a beautiful young woman. He walks her home and she invites him upstairs to her room but Vince refuses and stays the night at his mother's house. The next morning, he tells Jennifer that he is sorry he had stayed out all night, but she claims to not care. They begin to get into a small argument and she reveals her true jealousy over the incident. As the argument begins to escalate, Jennifer receives a phone call from the local hospital with news that her sister had just been in a car accident. She and Vince rush to the hospital where Jennifer makes a heart-felt confession to a woman wrapped in bandages, in a coma. She asks her sister to be the Maid of Honor at her wedding. Her sister accepts, but from behind her, and Jennifer realizes she has been talking to the wrong person the entire time.

When her brother in law decides to sleep over at the hospital, Jennifer agrees to take their two children for the night. As the day progresses, Jennifer finds herself noticing how well Vince does with the kids. At nighttime, when the young boy asks Vince when he and his sister will get to go home, Vince, trying to make a joke, replies "never." The young boy starts to scream and Jennifer comes to calm him down and has the boy tell her a bedtime story. After the kids have fallen asleep, Vince goes to sleep in Jennifer's room on an air mattress which then springs a leak. She invites him to sleep on top of the covers on her bed, but the two just can't keep their hands off each other. Just as they are really getting into it, they hear a knock on the door and Jennifer's niece announces that she doesn't feel well and vomits on the ground. The young boy then reveals to Vince that he won't be going to college because all of his and his sister's college money is being use to pay for the wedding. Vince realizes that this has gone too far and goes to see his father. His father had recently hit it big at the race track and owed Vince some money. Vince's father writes him a check for a large amount of money (the actual value is unknown). Instead of paying off his loan to "The Monkey", he uses the money to finance the wedding. He then tells the kids, "Looks like you're gonna have to go to college after all."

With Jennifer's feelings beginning to become confused, she begins to feel the weight of how important her marriage actually is to her family. At the wedding rehearsal, Jennifer's sister gives a heart felt speech, which drives Jennifer to leave the room. She confesses to Vince that she can't go through with this and can't marry a man who doesn't love her. Vince then reminds her of all that's at stake and she reluctantly agrees to go through with the wedding. The next day at their wedding, Jennifer's sister comes in and gives Vince the wedding vows that she had written for him. Vince then writes her wedding vows and gives them to the sister.

As Vince and the groomsmen wait for Jennifer, she speaks with her father and tries to tell him that it's all a hoax and she can't go through with it. However, her father keeps interrupting her and tells her how much he loves who she is and how he knows Vince will be a great husband. She reluctantly walks down the aisle and the preacher begins the sermon. As the preacher speaks, he talks about why two people get married, and when he mentions, "Some just want all the gifts," the two look at each other and laugh nervously while the rest of the congregation is laughing. When the preacher gives them a chance to read the vows, Vince begins to read the vows she wrote for him, but tears them up and speaks from the heart instead. This culminates in him telling her he really does love her. As she begins to read his written vows, Vince drops to one knee and we see that he had written "Will you marry me FOR REAL?" After she gives a heartfelt vow, she agrees and the two begin kissing as the preacher tries to continue the ceremony. It then ends with Jennifer and Vince dancing, and Jennifer saying "I love you, Vince".

Cast

• Melissa Joan Hart as Jennifer
• Joey Lawrence as Vince
• Nicole Tubiola as Courtney
• Burgess Jenkins as Steve
• Diane Neal as Bonnie
• Jason MacDonald as David
• Steve Schirripa as Monkey
• Rhoda Griffis as Val
• Patricia French as Catherine
• Elizabeth Keener as Carmen
• Robert Pralgo as Ben
• Heather Holliday Richmond as Sales Clerk/Hot Babe In Orange Hat

DVD release

My Fake Fiancé was released on Region 1 DVD, April 20, 2010.^[1]

Ratings/Reception

My Fake Fiancé premiered with big numbers for ABC Family. The movie premiered with over 3.6 million tuning in and another 2.8 tuning in for the encore. The premiere event became the No. 1 TV movie of the 2008/09 season in Women 18-34 (1.0 million) and the No. 1 cable movie in Women 18-49 (1.6 million). For the 2008/09 season to date, with My Fake Fiancé and January’s hit, Another Cinderella Story (1/18/09), ABC Family is now home to the Top 2 most-watched original movies on all cable in the key Women demos.

Competitively, the week’s No. 1 movie across all TV, My Fake Fiancé stood as Sunday’s No. 1 cable telecast in Adults 18-34 (1.2 million), Women 18-34 (1.0 million) and Women 18-49 (1.6 million).

My Fake Fiancé dominated the cable rankers, sweeping top rank in its time-period in key demos including Adults 18-34 (1.2 million), Women 18-34 (1.0 million), Adults 18-49 (2.0 million), Women 18-49 (1.6 million), Viewers 12-34 (1.7 million) and Females 12-34 (1.4 million). Impressively, My Fake Fiancé placed No. 2 among all TV in Women 18-34 and Females 12-34 (1.4 million) over the two hours, behind only ABC’s potent combination of Extreme Makeover: Home Edition and Desperate Housewives. Melissa Joan Hart holds the top 2 movies on ABC Family that debuted with good ratings and excellent demos, the first place movie is Holiday in Handcuffs.

The success of the film and the on-screen chemistry between Hart and Lawrence led ABC Family to commission a sitcom series starring the duo. Melissa & Joey premiered in August 2010.

References

1. ^ http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0034GK750

External links

• My Fake Fiance at the Internet Movie Database
• Official website