Father of the Bride is
the hilarious re-make of the 1950's MGM film that starred
Spencer Tracy and Elizabeth Taylor. With Steve Martin in the
Tracy role there are, of course, more sight gags, but there
are many warm and touching moments that make the character
vulnerable and human.
Nina and George
Banks are a happily married, middle-class couple. When their
daughter Annie returns home from a vacation in Rome and
informs her parents that she is engaged to Bryan MacKenzie,
whom she met on the trip, Nina is delighted but George can't
adjust to his "little girl" getting married. It
makes no difference that Bryan is a fine man from a good
family and with a brilliant future, George takes a negative
attitude about everything. When the bills for the wedding
begin mounting, George becomes unglued in a supermarket and
ends up in jail. Martin Short is brilliantly funny as a
professional wedding planner who is condescendingly tolerant
of George's penny-pinching. In the end George come to grips
with his mid-life crisis and in the process discovers the
meaning of family life.
On the first time
visit to his well-heeled future in-laws, George's curiosity
gets the better of him during a trip to the bathroom. His
snooping is short-lived however, when a pet Doberman turns
guard-dog after discovering George under a desk. The dog
growls at George and together with another pet Dobie aggress
the frightened George out of the house and eventually into the
swimming pool. This scene was shot in cuts. For the growling,
the dog responded to his trainer's verbal commands. Other
moves were accomplished by the trainers giving hand and verbal
cues just out of camera range. Swans are rented to add a
romantic atmosphere to the garden wedding reception, but,
unfortunately an unprecedented snowfall forces the wedding
party indoors. The swans are transferred to a bathtub. As
George is running down an icy garden path he jumps over an
errant swan and continues to slide a few feet down the path.
Since this scene was filmed on a spring evening in Southern
California, the snow and ice were fake. A mature and stable
swan was positioned on the walk facing a grassy area. Due to
the lateness of the hour, the swan was more interested in
dozing rather than moving and stayed in position. A stuntman
ran down the walk, jumped over the swan, and slid on the icy
material strategically placed on the other side of the swan.
The script writers
are to be commended for a subtle humane message that is
delivered to the audience during a discussion of the wedding
dinner menu. When it is suggested that veal be served for the
main course, Annie rejects the veal because of the inhumane
treatment of the calves.
