The Parent Trap (1998 film)

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This article is about the 1998 remake. To see the original, see The Parent Trap (1961 film).
The Parent Trap

Theatrical release poster
Directed by Nancy Meyers
Produced by Charles Shyer
Bruce A. Block (co-producer)
Julie B. Crane (associate producer)
Written by David Swift
Nancy Meyers
Charles Shyer
Erich Kästner (story)
Starring Dennis Quaid
Natasha Richardson
Lindsay Lohan
Music by Alan Silvestri
Cinematography Dean Cundey
Editing by Stephen A. Rotter
Distributed by Buena Vista Distribution
Release date(s) July 29, 1998
Running time 127 min.
Country United States
Language English
Gross revenue $92,108,518 (worldwide)
Allmovie profile
IMDb profile

The Parent Trap is a (1998) family film remake of 1961's The Parent Trap. This remake is directed by Nancy Meyers and stars Dennis Quaid and Natasha Richardson, and features Lindsay Lohan in her feature film debut. The film is based on Erich Kästner's novel Lottie and Lisa (Das Doppelte Lottchen). The plot involves a pair of twins who have been separated at birth and, upon meeting by chance, decide to work together to reunite their divorced parents.

Contents

[edit] Synopsis

Hallie Parker is an 11-year-old girl growing up in the Napa Valley with her father, Nicholas "Nick" Parker, a successful vineyard owner and a viticulturist. Her identical twin sister, Annie James, is a Londoner living with her wedding-gown-designer mother, Elizabeth "Lizzie" James. Neither knows that the other exists.

By coincidence, Hallie and Annie are both sent to Camp Walden by Moose Head Lake in Maine to spend the summer. At first, the two are fervent rivals who share an allergy to strawberries, great skill at the game of poker, and the ability to produce imaginative mischief. When this mischief, perpetrated against each other, causes the camp supervisors to isolate the two, Hallie and Annie soon discover the secret that had been kept from them. While still exiled from mainstream camp activity, they work on a plan to switch places at the end of summer, so each twin will be able to get to know the parent they had never met. In doing so, the two twins adopt each other's physical traits and individual accents.

The plan is successful. Hallie goes to England, where she meets her mother, befriends her mother's trusted butler Martin (who is a confidant of Annie), and becomes acquainted with her grandfather. Annie assumes her sister's identity and travels to California where she meets her sister's maid Chessy.

Annie, who has joined Nick in Napa Valley and assumed Hallie's place, learns that their father plans to soon marry his ambitious young publicist, Meredith Blake, who has designs on his considerable fortune. Annie contacts Hallie to reveal the new situation, forcing both girls to speed up their plan to get their parents to rendezvous.

It is not before long that Chessy, Nick's maid and home caretaker, discovers Annie's true identity. In London, the switch is discovered by Elizabeth's father, who instructs Hallie to reveal her true identity to her mother, fabricating a story that Nick wants to meet them at the Stafford Hotel in San Francisco, California. In fact, Nick has made no such plans, and, in turn, has been tricked into visiting the same hotel by his Annie, on the pretense that he is to meet Meredith's parents. Martin and Chessy are involved in the secret as well, and it appears they are becoming romantically involved. Nick has no idea that Elizabeth is present until they finally cross paths. At the hotel, the plot is revealed to Elizabeth when she catches Nick in an elevator with Meredith.

With the help of Martin and Chessy, the twins set up a secret date for their parents. While Nick and Elizabeth are unaware of what awaits them, the girls bring them to a docked ship and attempt to recreate their parents' first meeting, on the Queen Elizebeth 2. Martin and Chessy wait on them while the girls leave them alone to rekindle their relationship. It is during this candlelit dinner that both Nick and Elizabeth discuss how the other has reached his or her career goals, and each is thoroughly impressed by the others' success. It is also revealed that both Nick and Elizabeth cannot really remember why it was that they got divorced, although faint memories of the incidents surrounding their separation still exist. Nick asks Elizabeth how it was that they ended up apart, and she responds that when she got on the plane, he didn't follow her.

Nick and Elizabeth feel that reuniting would be impractical, despite their daughters' efforts to recreate the former attachment between them; they therefore plan to return to their respective lives, though plans are made to allow for the twins to spend holidays together throughout the year. Hallie and Annie disapprove of this plan, and insist that Nick take both of them to the promised annual camping trip. Nick and Elizabeth follow through, partly because the twins have refused to reveal which one is which until the trip is complete.

Back in Napa, as the group is ready to leave for the camping trip, it is revealed that Elizabeth insisted that Meredith join them and while Meredith is less than anxious to attend, she does not approve of her fiance being alone with his ex-wife. Elizabeth then surprises the group with another revelation -- that she will not attend at all! The twins are furious, but Elizabeth once again insists, explaining how it is important for Meredith to become better acquainted with her soon-to-be step-daughters. While on the trip, the twins play tricks on Meredith, taking advantage of her callowness and lack of self-control, including placing a lizard on her head, teaching her a silly and irrelevant "trick" to warding off mountain lions and even setting her air mattress afloat into the lake while she is sleeping at night. Eventually, an enraged and drenched Meredith orders Nick to choose between marriage to her and the companionship of his daughters; Nick gleefully chooses the latter. The twins are relieved, believing that their opportunity to reunite their parents has risen.

Back at the vineyard estate, Nick is giving Elizabeth a tour of his wine cellar, and they come across a chest of his special reserve wine. After showing Elizabeth a few select bottles from special dates in history, he gets to one bottle that Elizabeth does not recognize. Nick explains that this was the wine they drank at their wedding, and when she remarks how it was indeed good wine, he comments that he would share it with no one else but her. They nearly kiss, but Elizabeth backs away with tears in her eyes, slowly shaking her head. They are then interrupted by Chessy calling from upstairs.

As soon as Elizabeth and Annie arrive at their home, Hallie is there waiting for them, and she remarks how amazing it is that the Concorde flight can get to England in only two hours. Nick then appears and says that while he had made a mistake in letting her leave him before, he followed her this time and will not let her go. The film ends there, and the final credits feature photographs of a second wedding between Nick and Elizabeth. Photographs also appear suggest Martin proposed to Chessy on the night of Nick and Elizabeth's wedding.

[edit] Cast

Lohan as both twins
Lohan as both twins

[edit] Minor role casting

The lost boy who shows up at the girls camp is played by Michael Lohan Jr., Lindsay Lohan's brother. When Hallie arrives in London and meets Martin at the airport, Lindsay Lohan's mother can be seen holding her brother, Dakota. Beside her is Lindsay's other brother Michael and sister Aliana.

[edit] Production

Filming took place from July to December 1997 over various locations.[1]

The twins in this version are named after director Nancy Meyers's and producer Charles Shyer's daughters Annie Meyers Shyer and Hallie Meyers-Shyer, both of whom have small parts in the movie. Hallie is playing a girl at camp at the beginning who asks where the Navajo bunk is, and Annie is playing the towel girl at the hotel, who brings Elizabeth the first aid kit.

When Nick introduces Annie (pretending to be Hallie) to Meredith, the reveal of Meredith was not shot in slow motion; that was how Elaine Hendrix raised her head herself.[1]

[edit] Soundtrack

The song used in the opening sequence in which glimpses of Elizabeth and Nick's first wedding is seen is Nat King Cole's "L-O-V-E". The song used in the end credits, in which photos of Elizabeth and Nick's second wedding is seen, is his daughter Natalie Cole's "This Will Be (an Everlasting Love)".

The instrumental music featured prominently in the hotel scene where the twins and their parents cross paths serendipitously is "In the Mood", which was previously made famous by the Glenn Miller band.

When Hallie shows up at Annie's poker game at Camp Walden, the music used is "Bad to the Bone" by George Thorogood and the Destroyers.

[edit] Response

The movie entered the box office charts at number 2 on 31 July 1998. It ended up with a U.S. gross of over $66 million[2] It has made $92,108,518 worldwide[3]

The film debuted on United Lands televison (The Family Film Channel) on October 4 , 1999 and had 5.43 million viewers.

[edit] Versions

A television version of the film, as seen on the Disney Channel, is edited from the theatrical version. The first is when Hallie is piercing Annie's ears, the shot of the needle visibly entering Annie's ear has been cut and replaced with Hallie's reaction shot. Some DVD releases contain this edited version. Another television edit is during the scene when Annie talks with Meredith: Annie's line, "A relationship has to be based on more than just sex" has been removed. These scenes, however, were not removed from the international TV broadcast of the movie.

[edit] References to original The Parent Trap

As this film is a remake of the 1961 The Parent Trap, it features a number of references to the film it is based on. Among them are:

  • The use of the Sherman Brothers song, "Let's Get Together."
  • Meredith talks to Reverend Mosby, a character from the original film, on her cell phone. Similarly, Hallie and Annie use Mildred Plotker as cover names.
  • Actress Joanna Barnes, who played Vicky in the original film, plays Meredith's mother (also named Vicky) in this film.
  • The camp counselors, Marva Kulp Sr. and Jr., are named after Nancy Kulp, who played the younger camp counselor in the original.

This film is pretty much parallel to the original, but with many names and places changed, such as:

  • The mother lives in London instead of Boston, Massachusetts, and the father lives in Napa, California instead of Monterey, California. According to Nancy Myers, this change was made to make it more believable that the twins have never seen each other before.
  • The housekeeper's name is Chessy, instead of Verbena. (Chessy may also be Nick's sister in this film).
  • The dog is named Sammy, instead of Andromeda.
  • Hallie's horse is named Sprout, where Susan's is Choxley.
  • There is no Ranch Foreman in this movie, since the Parkers live near a Vineyard, where the Evers' in the original lived on a ranch. He was replaced by Martin.
  • Camp Walden instead of Camp Inch.
  • There was no dance at the camp with a boys' camp in this movie.

[edit] Differences with the novel

Since the film is based on and not adapted from the novel Lottie and Lisa, there are some notable differences:

  • Background differences: German and Austrian names and places have been replaced by English and American ones. Their father is a conductor and consequently music plays an important role in the novel. Their mother has a job and works a lot without making a lot of money. The contrast between the twins is based on the fact that the one who lives with the mother is very serious and responsible since she has to keep the house while the other one is more spoiled and tends to indulge herself more.
  • Plot differences: In the novel, the emphasis is more on the time the twins spend pretending to be the other one and the reunion of the parents is not detailed like it is in the movie (the circumstances of the reunion are also not planned by the twins in the novel). Moreover, the novel is a little darker since there are more antagonists (even if the main one remains the father's new fiancée) and during the long time they stay switched, they experience loneliness and sadness, one twin even getting very ill.

[edit] Pop culture reference

After Hallie arrives in London, she and her mother walk across the street together, on the same street, zebra crossing, and with the same cars as the Abbey Road album cover. The song "Here Comes The Sun" (written by George Harrison) plays; the screen even pauses while they are walking across.

When the camp counselors are leading Hallie and Annie to the isolation cabin, the music playing over the scene is the march from The Great Escape.

[edit] External links

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b Nancy Myers, Charles Shyer. Audio commentary, The Parent Trap Special Double Trouble Edition [DVD]. Disney DVD.
  2. ^ The Parent Trap (1998) at TheNumbers.com
  3. ^ The Parent Trap (1998) at BoxOfficeMojo.com
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The Parent Trap film series
v • d • e
Films directed by Nancy Meyers

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