FATHER OF THE BRIDE
A film review by Frank Maloney
Copyright 1991 Frank Maloney
FATHER OF THE BRIDE is a film directed by Charles Shyer. It stars Steve Martin, Diane Keaton, Kimberly Williams, with Martin Short.
FATHER OF THE BRIDE is a remake of the 1950 classic of the same name; the original, in turn based on a novel by Edward Streeter, and directed by Vincente Minnelli, starred Spencer Tracy, Joan Bennett, and Elizabeth Taylor, with Don Taylor as the groom. The new film uses many of the same scenes and even the original dialog (written by Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett). The new one has a lot of laughs and good, old-fashioned tears, but it doesn't quite work as well as the Spencer Tracy version.
For one thing, Steve Martin is no Spencer Tracy, or is that stating the obvious? Instead of bumbling warmth and endearing yet manly clumsiness, we get treated to 45 or 60 minutes of THE JERK as Martin tries not to deal with the prospect of his daughter getting married. Martin's having a major cheap attack and maybe some sublimated sexual jealousy. I like Martin, but warm he ain't.
For another, the two principal women characters are non-entities. Joan Bennett provided wisdom, humor, and a guiding hand to that wedding 41 years ago. Diane Keaton grins, smirks, and smiles mostly. She has one scene where she rather gently asserts herself, but mostly she comes off as a money-spending machine. Supposedly, she has her own career, but the film is so uninterested in her as to never actually tell us what that career might be. (Bennett was the driving force behind the big blow-out in the original--because she had missed out on a big wedding for herself and was seizing a second chance through her daughter; Keaton is mostly along for the ride.)
Kimberly Williams, the bride to be, will never win in a blind comparison with post-ingenue Elizabeth Taylor. Taylor's bride wanted to elope. Williams' bride wants a $1200 wedding cake. She's not a bad sort, but she's not exactly the modern woman the film wants us to believe she is. She's going to be a great architect, she doesn't want veal at the reception dinner (she's heard something), she calls the wedding off for no better reason than Taylor called hers off. On the other hand, her one-on-one basketball is one of the best scenes in the movie and we do have some reason to think there's more to her than a well-thumbed copy of BRIDE'S MAGAZINE.
Martin Short plays the flamboyant wedding coordinator, playing it as an offensive cliche with an incomprehensible and obviously synthetic accent. His assistant is played by an actor whose name may be W. D. Wong (apologies to all of Mr. Wong's fans if I've bolixed his initials) with better grace and more authenticity. The only good thing about Short's performance, which is blown up beyond all reason to accommodate his presence in the movie, is that Martin's reactions are markedly less homophobic as the wedding plans proceed and Martin becomes reconciled to hosting the most tasteless wedding ever seen in San Marino, California.
And really, this where the new movie most seriously fails us. Upper middle class family spends $200,000 for daughter's wedding ($250 per person, over 500 guests) and no one feels anything is out of proportion. The groom's parents live in "real" mansion and offer to help out, but no one offers to put the brakes on the Wedding from Hell in the name of anything like common decency, only in the name of not wanting to have a wedding in the first place.
And there is, appropriately, a product placement for Spode.
The best things about this new FATHER OF THE BRIDE are the love and family feelings. Ultimately, this is, after all, a tear-jerker. We are allowed to cry at weddings. And we do. All around me couples, moms and dads, dates, were cuddling through the last sequence, people were sniffling happily, and folks were feeling fine. The next best thing is Martin is pretty funny and does some of his great physical shtick.
I predict that people will take to this FATHER OF THE BRIDE.
However, I cannot recommend it to you for more than cheap matinee prices.
You might want to hunt the video of the Spencer Tracy version, too. It is still a very watchable film with legendary stars and a great director.
-- Frank Richard Aloysius Jude Maloney .
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