TV REVIEWS : ‘Contessa’ Steps Into a Masquerade

A modern day Cinderella story, Fox’s “The Counterfeit Contessa” strives to be both a soft ‘n’ breezy piece of entertainment and a hip TV movie with an irreverent wit and meaningful message.

Clearly, this isn’t an easy balancing act to pull off. And while it makes a spirited effort, “The Counterfeit Contessa” never convincingly evolves into the type of easily digestible and smartly adventurous romantic comedy its producers intended it to be.

There are some wonderfully funny and clever moments to this film about a working-class Italian American woman yearning for an ideal romance. The comedic aspects of the movie are often incisive and wickedly intelligent, especially when they deal with the underlying subject of class division and values. But the choice lines of witty dialogue usually fall to a handful of the film’s colorful subsidiary characters, leaving our protagonist Gina (Tea Leoni) appearing comely but rather dull.

When a handsome and well-bred businessman named Sinclair Everett (David Beecroft) mistakes Gina for a visiting Italian contessa while she is preparing to model in a department store fashion show, she decides to play along with this implausible misperception. She wants to be courted like a socialite even if it’s just for a few fleeting evenings.

Gina’s entry into high society leads to a number of humorous situations. But the film’s real sparks are generated by Sinclair’s two nonconformist siblings, Dawson (D.W. Moffett) and Helena (Nikki De Boer). An artist-type who shares little of his family’s obsession with wealth and status, Dawson is an impish rebel with a quick wit. Similarly, Helena is a spunky debutante in revolt.

With Gina mired naively in her Harlequin-esque fantasy world, you keep hoping that the under-utilized Helena will find a way to take over the movie. No such luck.

* “The Counterfeit Contessa” airs at 8 tonight on Fox (Channels 11 and 6).