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Father of the Bride (1991 film)

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Father of the Bride
Theatrical release poster
Directed byCharles Shyer
Screenplay byFrances Goodrich
Albert Hackett
Nancy Meyers
Charles Shyer
Based onFather of the Bride (1950 film)
Frances Goodrich
Albert Hackett
Father of the Bride (1949 novel)
by Edward Streeter
Produced byCarol Baum
Nancy Meyers
Howard Rosenman
Starring
CinematographyJohn Lindley
Edited byRichard Marks
Music byAlan Silvestri
Production
companies
Distributed byBuena Vista Pictures Distribution
Release date
  • December 20, 1991 (1991-12-20)
Running time
105 minutes[1]
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$20 million
Box office$129 million[2]

Father of the Bride is a 1991 American romantic comedy film starring Steve Martin, Diane Keaton, Kimberly Williams (in her film debut), and Martin Short. It is a remake of the 1950 film of the same name. Martin portrays George Banks, a businessman who becomes flustered while he and his family prepare for his daughter's marriage.

The film opened to positive reviews, and became a box office success. With its success, a sequel, Father of the Bride Part II, was released in 1995. This was Nancy Meyers and Keaton's second of four films together, the first being Baby Boom (1987); the others were Father of the Bride Part II and Something's Gotta Give (2003).

Plot

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The film begins with George Banks sitting in his house after the wedding reception of his 22-year old daughter, Annie. George then recalls the events that lead up to Annie’s wedding. George lives in San Marino, California with his wife, Nina, and their younger son, Matty, and is the owner of a successful athletic shoe company called Side Kicks. After Annie graduates from college, she returns home from Europe and announces that she is engaged to Bryan MacKenzie, despite them only having known each other for three months. The sudden shock turns the warm reunion into a heated argument between her and George, but they quickly reconcile in time for Bryan to arrive and meet them. Despite his good financial status and likable demeanor, George takes an immediate dislike to him, while Nina accepts him as a potential son-in-law. George does not want to let go of Annie.

George and Nina meet Bryan's parents, John and Joanna MacKenzie, who are wealthy and live in a mansion in Bel Air. John reassures George by also expressing how shocked he had initially been at Bryan's engagement and the two couples find they get along well, but George quickly gets into trouble when he begins nosing around the MacKenzies' financial records. He eventually ends up falling into their pool when cornered by their aggressive pet Dobermans.

All is forgiven, however, and the Banks family meets with an eccentric European wedding coordinator named Franck Eggelhoffer. He sneers dismissively at George's complaints about the price of wedding items, and George becomes frustrated as Annie and Nina plan for extravagant items such as a flock of swans and alterations to the family home, where the reception is to be held.

When George discovers that the wedding as planned will cost $250 a head, he insists on cutting down the guest list, but soon discovers his complaints are taking away from Annie's happiness and decides to go with the flow. This only lasts so long, though, and he finally snaps when he damages his old tuxedo. He leaves the house to cool off, but ends up causing a disturbance at the supermarket and is arrested. Nina arrives to bail him out of jail on the condition that he stop ruining the wedding.

With help from Nina and Franck, George becomes more relaxed and accepts that the wedding will be expensive. Annie suddenly calls it off after an argument with Bryan over a gift he gave her – a blender, which she took to mean he expects her to be a compliant housewife. George takes Bryan out for a drink intending to be rid of him, but seeing how despondent he is at the thought of losing Annie, consoles him and convinces him to reconcile with her.

A freak snowstorm arrives the night before the wedding, but Franck and George manage to pull everything together at the last minute. Annie marries Bryan wearing sneakers made by George's company, and George walks her down the aisle, finally accepting that she has grown up.

The reception at the Banks family home goes well thanks to George managing several crises behind the scenes, but as a result, he misses most of it and is unable to say goodbye to Annie before she and Bryan leave for their honeymoon in Hawaii. The film picks up George's narration from the beginning as the reception ends. Annie calls him from the airport to thank him and tell him that she loves him one last time before they board the plane.

With the house now empty and the wedding finished George finds solace with Nina and dances with her.

Cast

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Production

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The remake rights were acquired by Disney from Turner Entertainment. Touchstone Pictures tapped the studio's finance partner, Touchwood Pacific Partners, to fund the production of the film.[3]

Soundtrack

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The film's soundtrack was scored by Alan Silvestri and was influenced by jazz and Christmas instrumentations. It contains the following tracks:

  1. "Main Title"
  2. "Annie's Theme"
  3. "Drive to Brunch"
  4. "Snooping Around"
  5. "Pool Cue"
  6. "Annie Asleep"
  7. "Basketball Kiss"
  8. "The Wedding"
  9. "Snow Scene"
  10. "Nina at the Stairs"
  11. "The Big Day"
  12. "Annie at the Mirror
  13. "Pachelbel Canon"
  14. "The Way You Look Tonight" - Alan Silvestri, Dorothy Fields
  15. "My Annie's Gone"
  16. "The Way You Look Tonight (Reprise)"
  17. "End Credits"

The following songs are also featured in the film:

Reception

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Rotten Tomatoes reported that 70% of critics gave Father of the Bride a positive review, based on 44 reviews, with an average rating of 6.00/10. The site's critics consensus reads: "While it doesn't quite hit the heights of the original, this remake of the 1950 classic is pleasantly enjoyable, thanks in large part to winning performances from Steve Martin and Martin Short."[4] At Metacritic the film has a weighted average score of 51 out of 100, based on 17 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".[5] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A−" on an A+ to F scale.[6]

Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film three stars out of four and called it "one of the movies with a lot of smiles and laughter in it, and a good feeling all the way through."[7] Desson Howe of The Washington Post praised Martin for his performance in it, writing that "it is so funny, it's almost sublime. The explanation is simple: It's all Steve Martin."[8]

The film drew $15 million on its debut.[9] It grossed $89.3 million in the United States and Canada[2] and $40 million internationally,[10] for a worldwide gross of $129 million.

Awards and nominations

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MTV Movie Awards
BMI Film Awards
  • 1993, won, Best Movie - Father of the Bride
Young Artist Award
  • 1993, nominated, Best Young Actor Co-starring in a Motion Picture - Kieran Culkin

Remake

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On February 21, 2018, The Hollywood Reporter revealed that remakes of several films are in development as exclusive content for The Walt Disney Company's streaming service Disney+ with one of those projects named in the announcement as Father of the Bride.[11]

On September 24, 2020, Warner Bros. announced their plans for a remake starring a Hispanic family, with the script being penned by Matt Lopez.[12] The HBO Max original film was released on June 16, 2022.

References

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  1. ^ "Father of the Bride (PG)". British Board of Film Classification. June 1, 1992. Retrieved September 1, 2011.
  2. ^ a b Father of the Bride at Box Office Mojo
  3. ^ Harris, Kathryn (May 21, 1992). "A Dilemma for Disney : Films in Its Latest Financing Deal Have Mostly Been Clunkers". Los Angeles Times. pp. 1–2. Retrieved July 19, 2012.
  4. ^ "Father of the Bride (1991)". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved November 7, 2021.
  5. ^ "Father of the Bride Reviews, Ratings, Credits". Metacritic. CBS Interactive. Retrieved May 1, 2010.
  6. ^ "Find CinemaScore" (Type "Father of the Bride" in the search box). CinemaScore. Retrieved November 13, 2020.
  7. ^ Ebert, Roger. "Father of the Bride :: rogerebert.com :: Reviews". Retrieved May 12, 2022.
  8. ^ Howe, Desson (December 20, 1991). "Father of the Bride". The Washington Post. Retrieved August 25, 2015.
  9. ^ Fox, David J. (December 30, 1991). "Movies: 'Hook' leads with an estimated $23 million for the five-day Christmas period. 'Father of the Bride' and 'Prince of Tides' pull in about $15 million each". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved December 22, 2010.
  10. ^ Groves, Don (February 22, 1993). "Hollywood Wows World Wickets". Variety. p. 85.
  11. ^ "Disney Planning Another 'Muppets' Reboot for Its Streaming Service (Exclusive)". The Hollywood Reporter. February 21, 2018. Retrieved February 26, 2018.
  12. ^ Kroll, Justin (September 24, 2020). "Warner Bros Developing Latinx 'Father Of The Bride' Movie With Matt Lopez Penning The Script". Deadline. Retrieved September 24, 2020.
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