Sadly Over-hyped

The thing I enjoyed most about the film is the fact that it doesn't shy away from being a super-sized-cliche;

I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.

The movie really just wants to entertain people.

I like The Counterfeit Contessa only for the last 25 minutes when the real Contessa made her entry. The rest of the movie is an unrealistic and boring effort. Granted that the title character wanted something so badly she was willing to live a lie to get it...or is that really the only way to get to her man? What are the motives of the other characters who aided her in her quest? Contessa Sofia di Sarzanello and Anthony Nordino gave life to this nice movie. Without them the movie is a crescendo of unrealistic acting culminating in the unconvincing cry scene by Gina Nordino at the end. In spite of this major weakness the movie is worth watching if only for the part played by the real Contessa.

Cute movie, and great fun for a rainy afternoon! This story line has been seen in several other movies (While You Were Sleeping comes instantly to mind) (with variations, of course) but it holds-up rather well. Tea Leoni is a very beautiful young woman, and even more so when posing as a wealthy Italian Contessa. She has an earnestness about her and her desire to live a life based on 'romance movies' that is endearing -- it's too bad that her ultimate love interest is a bit wooden. He's supposed to be the male rebel of the aristocratic family, but I kept seeing Bill Pullman from "Sleeping" instead as he was much better! At any rate, when it was over, the one thing I truly wanted to see more than anything was for Leoni's character and the real Contessa (who had been detained by Leoni's brother in order for the entire final scene(s) to be pulled off) to face each other!! There was potential for that, and I wish it had been in the movie!!

I love this film! I first saw it back in 2001 or something and absolutely fell in love with it and D.W. Moffett who plays Gina's should-be suitor Dawson Everett! Dawson is the perfect guy! My gosh, D.W. Moffett what a talent and what a babe! He plays the part so convincingly and delivers the lines, which are mostly sarcastic so well! I watch whatever he does now! Tea' Leoni is also fabulous in it! She's so adorable and even though *SPOILER* she gives Dawson a hard time she really does deserve him! I love it when she bad mouths him in Italian at the dinner table in front of everyone even though they couldn't understand her! Anyway, the entire cast is great! I wish it would come back on TV but the stations don't have the rights to it anymore and it is hard to find at the video stores. I have the movie on video because I taped it back then but I don't have the beginning and have never seen it from the start...one day!

I stumbled across this movie while it was aired as late-night cable fare several months ago. Tea Leoni is purely irresistible as a regular girl posing as royalty. Predictably, she comes to love the person that she really is, which should be fairly easy since I had already fallen in love with her by the second commercial break.I only wish this movie was in a video store somewhere. It would be nice to stumble across Tea more often in the wee hours of the night.