| The Parent Trap | |
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Theatrical release poster |
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| Directed by | Nancy Meyers |
| Produced by | Charles Shyer |
| Screenplay by | David Swift Nancy Meyers Charles Shyer |
| Story by | Erich Kästner |
| Starring | Lindsay Lohan Dennis Quaid Natasha Richardson Elaine Hendrix Lisa Ann Walter Simon Kunz |
| Music by | Alan Silvestri |
| Cinematography | Dean Cundey |
| Editing by | Stephen A. Rotter |
| Distributed by | Walt Disney Pictures |
| Release date(s) | United States July 29th,1998 United Kingdom December 11th,1998 |
| Running time | 128 minutes[1] |
| Country | United States United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $15.5 million |
| Box office | $92,108,518 |
The Parent Trap (1998) is a remake of the 1961 family film of the same name. It was directed and co-written by Nancy Meyers, and produced and co-written by Charles Shyer. It stars Dennis Quaid and Natasha Richardson as a couple who divorce soon after marrying, and Lindsay Lohan in a dual role as their twin daughters, who are accidentally reunited after being separated at birth. Both films are based on Erich Kästner's novel Lottie and Lisa (Das Doppelte Lottchen). The novel and the 1936 Deanna Durbin film Three Smart Girls are the basis of the screenplay written by David Swift for the 1961 and 1998 film, only the novel is credited however. Meyers and Shyer are credited as co-writers of the 1998 version along with Swift.
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Nick Parker (Quaid) and Elizabeth James (Richardson) met and married each other during an ocean cruise on the QE2. Elizabeth gave birth to twin daughters Hallie and Annie (both played by Lohan), but the couple divorced and lost contact with each other, each parent raising one of the twins without telling her about her sister. Nick raised Hallie in the Napa Valley and became a wealthy wine grower, while Elizabeth raised Annie in London and became a famous wedding gown designer.
After the ocean cruise and onboard wedding ceremony, the story jumps ahead to a summer in which Nick and Elizabeth coincidentally enroll their daughters in the same summer camp in Maine. Annie and Hallie, who are now eleven years old, first meet at the end of a fencing match, when they remove their masks and see that they look alike. A comical hostility between the two girls leads to a prank war that ends when the camp counselors fall into one of Hallie's traps and isolate the twins from the other girls.
Living together, Hallie and Annie discover that they were born on the same day and they each have half of a torn wedding photograph of their parents. Realizing with delight that they are twins, the girls hatch a plan to meet their previously unknown parents: Each girl will train her twin to impersonate her, and they will switch places at the end of the summer.
When camp is over, the plan succeeds: Hallie goes to London, where she meets her mother, her grandfather, and the James family's butler Martin (Kunz). Annie goes to California, where she meets her father, the Parker family's housekeeper Chessy (Walter), their dog Sammy, and Nick's young, opportunistic fiancée Meredith (Hendrix), who is only interested in Nick's money. Distressed by Meredith's deviousness, Annie telephones Hallie and persuades her to bring Elizabeth to California to break up the engagement. Soon the girls' identities are discovered, and, except for Nick and Meredith, who remain unaware of the switch, their newfound family members tearfully welcome them.
In order to bring Nick and Elizabeth together, Annie, Hallie, Grandpa, Chessy, and Martin conspire to have them meet at a hotel in San Francisco by arranging for Nick to meet Meredith's parents and by not telling Elizabeth about Meredith. Nervous about meeting Nick, Elizabeth asks Martin to accompany her and Hallie. After a few comical mixups in the hotel, Nick and Elizabeth see each other, Nick finally learns about the switch, and the twins host a candlelit dinner for Nick and Elizabeth, served by Martin and Chessy, on a yacht decorated to recreate their first meeting. At dinner, Elizabeth mentions that Nick did not follow her after she left him, and Nick responds that he was not sure if Elizabeth would want him to. They make plans for the twins to spend holidays together, but decide against resuming their relationship.
Hallie and Annie dislike this idea, so they force their parents to take them camping by refusing to reveal which twin is which. After Elizabeth persuades Nick and the girls to take Meredith instead of herself, the twins play tricks on Meredith, who becomes enraged and insists that Nick choose between her and his daughters. Nick chooses the twins, and Meredith breaks off the engagement.
After Meredith leaves, Nick shows Elizabeth his wine collection, which includes the wine they drank at their wedding. Elizabeth is touched by this gesture at first, but has a change of heart and returns to London with Annie. However, when Elizabeth and Annie get home, they find Hallie and Nick waiting for them, having flown there on the Concorde. Elizabeth is fearful of remarrying, but she yields to Nick's confidence, and Annie and Hallie look on happily as Nick and Elizabeth embrace. The final credits feature photographs of Nick and Elizabeth's second wedding, also aboard the QE2, with the twins as bridesmaids, and Martin presenting Chessy with an engagement ring.
Lindsay Lohan's mother Dina Lohan and her younger sister Ali appear in uncredited cameos as a mother and child at the airport.
Joanna Barnes appeared in the 1961 The Parent Trap as Vicky, the attractive gold digger who is planning to marry the twins' father for his money.
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. Later in the hotel, Hallie sings a few bars of "Let's Get Together," a tune from the first version of the film that was a hit for its star, Hayley Mills.
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.
| The Parent Trap | |
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| Soundtrack album by Various | |
| Released | July 28, 1998 |
| Label | Hollywood Records |
| The Parent Trap | ||||
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| Film score by Alan Silvestri | ||||
| Released | September 1, 1998 | |||
| Label | Hollywood Records | |||
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The film was met with generally positive reviews, holding an 81% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes.[2] It entered the box office charts at number 2 on July 31, 1998. It ended up with a gross of over $66 million in the U.S.[3] and $92,108,518 worldwide.[4]
The film debuted on United Lands television (The Family Film Channel) on October 4, 1999, and had 5.43 million viewers.
In its opening weekend, the film grossed $11,148,497 in 2,247 theaters in the United States and Canada, ranking #2 at the box office, behind Saving Private Ryan, was the best debut for a Disney film that week. By the end of its run, The Parent Trap grossed $66,308,518 domestically and $25,800,000 internationally, totaling $92,108,518 worldwide.[5]
The scene slots between Hallie and Martin meeting at Heathrow Airport, and Hallie meeting her mother and grandfather. Hallie is in a limo and they come across Buckingham Palace. She gets out and tries to get one of the guards to move. The guards then crowd around in formation as the Queen exits Buckingham Palace in a car. The window rolls down and Hallie speaks to the Queen, getting confused with 'Your Highness' or 'Your Majesty' or whether to curtsy. The Queen promises not to tell a soul and moves off. Director Nancy Meyers had a difficult time getting the uniforms, location, and an actress to play the Queen. Although the scene is shot well, the scene was deleted due to pacing problems.
Another deleted scene appears in the trailer that debuted in 1998. The scene shows Annie standing out on the deck of her vineyard-estate house. She sees a shooting star and sings the rhyme "Starlight, Starbright." Hallie appears standing outside her window, too.
In the original draft of the script, many scenes have been altered or deleted. An extended ear-piercing scene is in. While putting the needle through Annie's ear, Hallie screams and passes out. Annie gently smacks Hallie in the face, trying to wake her up. After Hallie wakes up, she asks Annie, "Are you bleeding to death? Did it hurt?" Annie tells her no to both questions and shows Hallie the needle again, and tells her finish with the other because she (Annie) will not go through life with just one pierced ear. Hallie passes out again.[6]
An extended scene, Elizabeth delves further into why she and Nick did not stay together long. She says, "I tried living in California, He tried living in London..." Hallie replies, "So you broke up?" Elizabeth tells Hallie that they were the best thing about the whole situation and they continue to stroll down the streets of London.
There is an extended ending at the end where Hallie tells Annie: "You guys are going to love living in California." To that Annie replies: "California? You guys are going to love living in London." Hallie then replies "London?" In the front yard Sammy is barking to the poodle next door as Martin and Chessy are kissing and Grandfather is getting home.
It is unknown if all of the above scenes were filmed.
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:
In the "Isolation Cabin," when the window is open during a storm and many of Hallie's pictures are blown off the wall, Annie asks if any were ruined. Hallie replies "Only the beautiful Leonardo DiCaprio," to which Annie says, "Who's Leonardo DiCaprio?" Then Hallie asks "How far is London anyway", to which Annie replies that its nearly 3000 miles away. This is a reference to the actor in Titanic, which had come out less than a year earlier.
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 of The Beatles. The song "Here Comes The Sun" (written by George Harrison) plays; the screen even pauses while they are walking across.
The music that accompanies Hallie and Annie's march to the isolation cabin is taken from the scene in The Great Escape in which Steve McQueen's character is marched to prison.
In numerous scenes, the girls refer to Meredith as Cruella de Vil.
Nick first sees his ex-wife in a hotel as an elevator door closes in front of him. This is essentially identical to the corresponding scene in the 1940 screwball comedy My Favorite Wife, starring Irene Dunne and Cary Grant, and its 1963 remake Move Over, Darling, starring Doris Day and James Garner.
When asked by Hallie, "You talkin' to me?" Meredith replies, "What are you, Robert De Niro?", a reference to the film Taxi Driver.
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