Father of the Bride

Father of the Bride; Comedy, USA, 1991; D: Charles Shyer, S: Steve Martin, Kimberly Williams, Diane Keaton, George Newbern, Martin Short

George Banks and his wife Nina are shocked: their 22-year old daughter Annie met American Brian in Rome, a communication engineer, and got engaged to him. George isn't at all in accord with the rushed marriage, but discovers that Brian's parents are all very noble and rich. For the ceremony, some kook was hired as the wedding coordinator, who calculates that they will have to pay 250 $ for every guest. George goes mad and ends in prison, while Annie and Brian get into a short argument. At the wedding day, it snows and the huge number of cars blocks the road. Still, Annie gets married and moves out.

Sympathetic remake "Father of the Bride" isn't some outstandingly funny comedy but neatly spoofs some easily identifiable family problems and wedding problems, which is why it became a solid hit and earned Steve Martin a Golden Globe nod as best actor in a musical or comedy. In the opening, a 2 minute long take, Martin's character George is sitting on the chair and doing a monologue looking directly into the camera: "When your daughter starts dating boys, you are always afraid she might meet the wrong one. But later on you start worrying that she might meet the right one". It's clear from the start that this is a harmless fun that doesn't attempt to reach some higher creative levels, whereas the humor isn't that inventive, and sometimes it's even forced, like when George goes to the toilette of Brian's parents and, out of curiosity, looks into their check book, and then he is chased by the dogs and in the end falls into the pool. But for the majority the film is sufficiently crafted and it has one really brilliant scene: when George turns towards the house and imagines that he is barbecuing in tune to the song "La Bamba".

Grade:++