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Father of the Bride (1991)
Steve Martin proved to be more than up to the task of filling the shoes of the amazing Spencer Tracy in an appealing and exquisitely mounted remake of Tracy's 1950 classic Father of the Bride.
This 1991 remake features Martin playing George Stanley Banks, a shoe manufacturer who is having trouble with the fact that his daughter Annie has returned from a trip to Hawaii with a fiancee. We watch George hoping this whole thing is a bad dream and upon accepting that the upcoming wedding is a reality, he must then deal with the chaos and expense involved in planning the perfect wedding.
Director Charles Shyer and wife Nancy have done an admirable job of updating the original Francis Goodrich/Albert Hackett screenplay from 1950, keeping the theme of the story front and center, despite the addition of some slapstick elements to accommodate the leading man. There are a couple of extra complications to the story, like a major snowstorm in California.
Director Shyer also does an expert job reining in his star, who could have made this movie all about pratfalls and mugging, but Martin's performance is unusually subdued and quite charming. I absolutely love the scenes during the reception after the wedding where all he wants to do is talk to Annie and have a dance with her, but he just can't get to her. If the truth be told, this was also my favorite part of the 1950 film where Tracy is trying to get two minutes alone with daughter Elizabeth Taylor. I do like the way this version gives the role of the bride's mother a little more substance than it had in 1950 and Diane Keaton gives even more richness to the role than the screenplay provides. I loved the scene where she bails George out of jail and insists on speaking to him before she bails him out.
Kimberly Williams is an acceptable updating of Elizabeth Taylor's role and though a lot of people found him very funny, I found Martin Short kind of annoying as the wedding planner with the bizarre accent that made it pretty impossible to understand what he was saying, not to mention Asian BD Wong playing his assistant named Howard Wienstein (?), but, mercifully, their screentime was limited enough that I was still able to enjoy this solid remake of a classic that stands up proudly next to the film on which it was based.
Steve Martin proved to be more than up to the task of filling the shoes of the amazing Spencer Tracy in an appealing and exquisitely mounted remake of Tracy's 1950 classic Father of the Bride.
This 1991 remake features Martin playing George Stanley Banks, a shoe manufacturer who is having trouble with the fact that his daughter Annie has returned from a trip to Hawaii with a fiancee. We watch George hoping this whole thing is a bad dream and upon accepting that the upcoming wedding is a reality, he must then deal with the chaos and expense involved in planning the perfect wedding.
Director Charles Shyer and wife Nancy have done an admirable job of updating the original Francis Goodrich/Albert Hackett screenplay from 1950, keeping the theme of the story front and center, despite the addition of some slapstick elements to accommodate the leading man. There are a couple of extra complications to the story, like a major snowstorm in California.
Director Shyer also does an expert job reining in his star, who could have made this movie all about pratfalls and mugging, but Martin's performance is unusually subdued and quite charming. I absolutely love the scenes during the reception after the wedding where all he wants to do is talk to Annie and have a dance with her, but he just can't get to her. If the truth be told, this was also my favorite part of the 1950 film where Tracy is trying to get two minutes alone with daughter Elizabeth Taylor. I do like the way this version gives the role of the bride's mother a little more substance than it had in 1950 and Diane Keaton gives even more richness to the role than the screenplay provides. I loved the scene where she bails George out of jail and insists on speaking to him before she bails him out.
Kimberly Williams is an acceptable updating of Elizabeth Taylor's role and though a lot of people found him very funny, I found Martin Short kind of annoying as the wedding planner with the bizarre accent that made it pretty impossible to understand what he was saying, not to mention Asian BD Wong playing his assistant named Howard Wienstein (?), but, mercifully, their screentime was limited enough that I was still able to enjoy this solid remake of a classic that stands up proudly next to the film on which it was based.