Lindsay Lohan, Dennis Quaid and Natasha Richardson
As the tirade of nostalga continues in Hollywood (i.e. Dr. Doolittle, Godzilla, The Avengers and the billions of other remakes) Disney decided to jump back on the bandwagon and remake its 1961 hit The Parent Trap. As much as I despise remakes, and as much as I would like to despise this movie... I couldn't, because it was too good.
Annie James (Lindsay Lohan) and Hallie Parker (Lindsay Lohan)
This time around it is Lindsay Lohan instead of Haley Mills pulling double duty as the identicle twins seperated by an ocean. The movie starts out by showing the whirlwind romance of Nick Parker (Dennis Quaid) and Elizabeth James (Natasha Richardson) abord the QE2 about 12 years ago. We then move ahead to the present to find out that they have split up and are living about 6000 miles apart, with Nick in Napa Vally, CA and Elizabeth in London, England. We also know that when the split up each of them got one of their identical twin daughters (Lindsay Lohan). Miraculously, Elizabeth sends her twin, Annie, to the exact same summer camp as Nick sends Hallie, his twin. Of course they run into each other and realize that they are twins, and decide they will switch places so Hallie can meet her mother and Annie can meet her father. And when their parents realize the switch they will have to meet again and Hallie and Annie can try and get them back together. Everything is going great until Annie finds out that their father has fallen in love with Meredith Blake (Elaine Hendrix), a twenty something gold digger who is only after Nick's sizable wine fortune. Right at about this moment Elizabeth figures out that her Annie is actually Hallie and rushes off to California to switch them back, and to see Nick again. After a lot of trickery the twins find a way to get rid of Meredith and they have a plan to get Nick and Elizabeth back together.
Elizabeth James (Natasha Richardson) and Nick Parker (Dennis Quaid) reunited
Like I said, I am not a big fan of remakes. Sure their have been some good ones recently, like The Nutty Professor and Flubber which weren't too bad, but it seems like such a cop out for a studio. It's a lot like a sequel, the studio couldn't come up with any good ideas so they say "Lets just copy something that's already been done." Although that is the case with this movie, it is still very well done. I don't remember the original too well, but the makers of this version did a very good job of sticking with the original idea and still having an identity of its own. The writing was well done with a lot of funny (cute funny, like little kid funny, but still funny) situations, and the acting was very good. Dennis Quaid and Natasha Richardson did a good job of being supporting characters for Lindsay Lohan, who did a spectacular job for her first movie. If she can stay out of being type cast, she should have a long, long career ahead of her. Overall, The Parent Trap was a great kids movie, and one that adults and even teenagers and twenty year olds (like me) can enjoy.
