Father of the Bride

What’s the Story?

In this remake of Vincent Minnelli's 1950 film (which starred Elizabeth Taylor and Spencer Tracy), 22-year-old Annie (Kimberly Williams) comes home from a semester abroad and shocks her parents with the news that she met a wonderful guy and they're engaged. As in the original film, dad George (Steve Martin) has a hard time dealing with the fact that his little girl has grown up. He thinks she's too young to marry, even when his wife Nina (Diane Keaton) reminds him that by age 21 she'd married him and was pregnant with Annie. George puts his future son-in-law to the test to make sure he's good enough, but the main focus of this 1991 remake is the wedding. Over-the-top wedding planner Franck (Martin Short) is hired, and, as the event becomes bigger by the day, George's bank account shrinks.

Is It Any Good?

Father of the Bride spins a pretty web of nuptial fantasy, but is such frenzied consumerism really what weddings are about? That said, there's a lot to like, especially its warm, witty star, Steve Martin, who makes a great dad: he's prickly but loving, a real softie at heart. Diane Keaton has little to do here but smile through tears; her role has been usurped by Martin Short's Frank, the wedding planner whose bizarre accent makes each of his suggestions hilarious. The scenes between Frank and George are superb, and they more than make up for the overly sweet sentiment elsewhere.

Also to its credit, this film manages to capture the love (often unspoken) between a young woman and her father. As George wrestles with the fact that his little girl, who saw him as her hero, is leaving him forever, he experiences emotions that most parents and children will relate to. And in a welcome update of the original movie, Annie has to offer than just a pretty face: she's pursuing a career in architecture, and she can play a mean game of one-on-one.