Deceptions

I hope and pray that this movie is released on DVD in the not too distant future. This is one of the very few made-for-television movies that has really stood the test of time. It could have been made yesterday. I found the carnival scenes filmed in Venice to be especially exciting. The costumes were beautiful and the setting, being Venice, added an air of "magic" to the whole thing. Stephanie Powers was superb in both parts - two very different characters with very different lifestyles - both of which she made very credible. I have this on video and it always cheers me up when I'm feeling low. I have always been a big fan of Stephanie Powers - ever since "Girl from Uncle / April Dancer.

I rented this movie not long after it came out, something to watch on a rainy evening. It was unusually compelling, Ms Powers delivers a performance exceeding anything I have seen her do before or since, not simply as she plays two separate roles, but 'involves' the viewer in what she is enacting. I am not a fan, but this movie alone would stop me from disparaging her work. The story moves along at a fair pace with the twists and turns of a much heavier thriller without the necessity for gruesome scenes. I have been trying to buy this movie for 15 years now and the guys that have it are keeping it, and I understand why.

This was an interesting take on 'The Prince and the Pauper.' Stephanie Powers stars as a bored and financially stressed housewife of a college professor (Barry Boswick) with rumors of taking liberties with his students.

Ironically we learn in an early scene that Boswick is actually one of the few professors NOT trading grades for sex.

Stephanie stressed for a vacation ends up celebrating her birthday with her twin Sabrina whom lives life in the fast and glamorous world of the rich Euro trash.

Just as in the original story, as the two share complaints about their lives the start to see the grass on the other side looking greener and decide to trade places. Stephanie will experience all the glitz and glamour of Europe, while Sabrina will return to the stable life of an American housewife and mother of two (Fairuza Balk and Tobey Maquire).

Also predictably the two learn to actually enjoy life on the other side. Sabrina ends up falling in love with Prof. Boswick and being the caring and involved mother Stephanie did not want to be.

Logically this plot shouldn't work. It's not like 'The Prince and the Pauper' or 'The Prisoner of Zenda' where coworkers/royal subjects could be easily duped. But children know knowing their own mother? A husband and boyfriends not noticing any differences in the bedroom? Surely they could not be so easily fooled.

The storyline really is very exciting and keeps you enthralled enough to hang on to every scene. I can't write any more without giving away some key plot twists. Just be assured the story takes some real twists.

Not so realistic is the scene where Sabrina finally tells Boswick the truth about her identity. Sure he's angry and kicks her out but realistically anyone else wouldn't be as nice. They'd throw her out the window or bury her in the backyard.

There's also a great performance be a young Fairuza Balk as Stephanie's daughter. A scene where she is teased and traumatically kicked out of the school play may be the childhood trauma which turned her into the Goth skinhead she's better known as in films like 'American History X.' Yes, that is Tobey Maquire as the son. Although IMDb and the open credits do no credit him. There's no doubt it is him.

One of the most interesting things about this movie is all the major actors who play minor parts, at a time before they were really famous in the U.S. Tobey Maguire, looking like he's about 8 years old (but who can tell, really, since he looks like he's 8 years old today), plays one of Stephanie Powers' children. Also we get Jeremy Brett, the BBC's definitive modern Sherlock Holmes, as assistant bad guy, looking really hot without his deerstalker cap. And the wonderful Judy Parfitt, who is known to American audiences primarily as the wild widower wearing cowboy boots in the BBC long-running series "As Time Goes By" of more recent fame.

Not sure, but I believe that Tobey's sister is played by an equally young Salma Blair, but since neither of them is listed on the official credits, it's hard to tell.

The movie has some kind of stilted moments, but the scenery and ambiance are unbeatable: Live shots of the Grand Canal in Venice, the Via Condotti in Rome, most of the great shopping streets in London, and the magnetic Stephanie Powers. It's a great way to pretend that we're millionaires traveling around Europe in style. And not a bad movie, to boot.

This happens to be one of my favorite "trash wallows" as we used to call these expensive soapers in the '80s. Unfortunately, there aren't the budgets for TV movies that there used to be.

Stefanie Powers is in her prime in this dual role of a plain Jane wife of a college teacher and her glamorous jet setting twin sister. The cast includes Sherlock Holmes himself, Jeremy Brett and none other than Gina Lollabrigida. Part of the movie takes place in Venice and it's glorious!

Deceptions embodies a certain '80s decadence for me - I love the scene on the yacht where all these hedonists are dancing to the Pointer Sisters. But my favorite is the night of the twins' birthday, celebrated in an Italian villa, where they dance to "Don't Let it Stop" and the shy sister starts to really get into it, juxtaposed against some nefarious doings outside the villa. It's great fun.