Borrowed Hearts

Single mother Kathleen Russell is struggling to save enough money to buy a home for herself and her young daughter Zoey. Her employer, Sam Field, is a confirmed bachelor whose business deal with a traditional-minded Mexican financier, Javier Del Campo, is at risk because Del Campo distrusts unmarried men. Sam offers Kathleen a fee to pose as his wife, with Zoey playing their child, for the duration of the visitor's stay. The arrangement is meant to be brief, but Javier remains longer than expected and Christmas approaches, giving the three time to grow closer as the line between performance and real feeling blurs.

Borrowed Hearts is a Canadian television film directed by Ted Kotcheff, released in 1997 and running 91 minutes. It mixes drama, romance and fantasy elements around a holiday setting. Kotcheff had directed eleven earlier features, including Wake in Fright, First Blood and Weekend at Bernie's, and this was the most recent in that chronology. Pamela Wallace and Earl W. Wallace wrote the screenplay. Roma Downey plays Kathleen, Eric McCormack plays Sam, and Héctor Elizondo appears as Javier Del Campo, with Shawn Thompson, Janet Bailey and Barbara Gordon in supporting roles.

The film holds a 6.8 rating on IMDb from around 2,700 votes and a 6.5 rating on TMDB from a much smaller base of 77 votes. The two audiences are broadly aligned in their assessment, with the larger IMDb sample placing it slightly higher.