Father of the Bride is a 1991 American comedy film starring Steve Martin, Diane Keaton, Kimberly Williams-Paisley, George Newbern, Martin Short, BD Wong, and Kieran Culkin. It is a remake of the 1950 film of the same name. In 1995, a sequel, Father of the Bride Part II, was released.
The film inspired a series of Hallmark commercials that featured the smiling faces of the happy couple and sneak-peeks at the backs of numerous greeting cards. It is number 92 on Bravo's "100 Funniest Movies".
Plot[]
George Banks (Steve Martin) is an upper-middle-class owner of an athletic shoe company in San Marino, California, whose 22-year-old daughter, Annie (Kimberly Williams-Paisley), returns from Europe, telling them she is engaged to Bryan MacKenzie (George Newbern), a man from an upper-class family from Bel-Air, despite only knowing each other for three months. The sudden shock turns the warm reunion into a heated argument between George and Annie, but they quickly reconcile in time for Bryan to arrive and meet them. Despite Bryan's good financial status and likable demeanor, George takes an immediate dislike to him while his wife, Nina (Diane Keaton), accepts him as a potential son-in-law.
George and Nina meet Bryan's parents, John and Joanna MacKenzie. Though George feels comfort from John also expressing how shocked he had initially been at Bryan's marriage plans, George quickly gets into trouble when he begins nosing around and eventually ends up falling into the pool when cornered by the MacKenzies' vicious pet Dobermans. All is forgotten, however, and the Banks meet with an eccentric European wedding designer, Franck Eggelhoffer (Martin Short) and his assistant, Howard Weinstein (BD Wong), where George immediately begins complaining about the price of the extravagant wedding items. The high price, $250 a head, plus the problems of wedding invitations and extensive remodeling of a room in the house begin to take their toll on him and he becomes slightly insane. The final straw occurs when his small tuxedo, which he had struggled to put on, rips when he bends his back. He leaves the house to cool off, but ends up causing a disturbance at a supermarket. Fed up with paying for things he doesn't want, he starts removing hot dog buns from their 12-bun packets so as to match the 8-dog packets of wieners. He ends up getting arrested, but Nina arrives to bail him out on the condition that he stop ruining the wedding.
With help from Nina and Franck, George becomes more relaxed and accepting of the wedding, particularly when Bryan and Annie receive rather expensive gifts from extended family members, but the wedding plans are put on hold when they have a fight over a blender Bryan gave to Annie as an 8th month anniversary gift, which only got worse when she refused to believe his story about George's antics at his parents' house when he fell in the pool. George takes Bryan out for a drink, initially intending to get rid of him for good, but seeing his heartbroken face and genuine claim that he loves Annie, George has a change of heart and finally accepts him. He confesses to Annie that what happened at the MacKenzies' house was true, and Annie and Bryan reconcile.
Despite some last minute problems with the weather, the wedding is finally prepared, almost one year after Bryan and Annie's first meeting. They marry and the reception is held at the house, despite a nosy police officer objecting to the number of parked cars in the street. George, unfortunately, misses Annie throwing her bouquet and is unable to see her before she and Bryan leave for their honeymoon. She, however, 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[]
- Steve Martin as George Banks
- Diane Keaton as Nina Banks
- Kimberly Williams-Paisley as Annie Banks-MacKenzie
- George Newbern as Bryan MacKenzie
- Kieran Culkin as Matty Banks
- Martin Short as Franck Eggelhoffer
- BD Wong as Howard Weinstein
- Peter Michael Goetz as John MacKenzie
- Kate McGregor-Stewart as Joanna MacKenzie
- Richard Portnow as Al
- David Pasquesi as Hank
- Chauncey Leopardi as Cameron
- Eugene Levy as Singer at audition
- Marissa Lefton as 3-year-old Annie
- Sarah Rose Karr as 7-year-old Annie
- Amy Young as 12-year-old Annie
Soundtrack[]
The film's soundtrack was scored by Alan Silvestri and was influenced by Jazz and Christmas instrumentations. It contains the following tracks:
- "Main Title"
- "Annie's Theme"
- "Drive to Brunch"
- "Snooping Around"
- "Pool Cue"
- "Annie Asleep"
- "Basketball Kiss"
- "The Wedding"
- "Snow Scene"
- "Nina at the Stairs"
- "The Big Day"
- "Annie at the Mirror
- "Pachelbel Canon"
- "The Way You Look Tonight" - Alan Silvestri, Fields, Dorothy
- "My Annie's Gone"
- "The Way You Look Tonight (Reprise)"
- "End Credits"
The following songs are also featured in the film:
- "My Girl" - The Temptations
- "(Today I Met) The Boy I'm Going to Marry" - Darlene Love
- "Chapel of Love" - The Dixie Cups
Reception[]
The film opened to generally favorable reviews. It currently has 72% on Rotten Tomatoes based on 39 reviews. Contrastingly, it received 51/100 on Metacritic. Roger Ebert called it "one of the movies with a lot of smiles and laughter in it, and a good feeling all the way through. Just everyday life, warmly observed."
Awards and Nominations[]
- MTV Movie Awards
- 1992; nominated, "Best Breakthrough Performance" - Kimberly Williams
- 1992; nominated, "Best Comedic Performance" - Steve Martin
- 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
Box office[]
The film drew $15 million on its debut.
External links[]
- Father of the Bride at the Internet Movie Database
- Father of the Bride at AllRovi
- Father of the Bride at Box Office Mojo
- Father of the Bride at Rotten Tomatoes
- Father of the Bride at Metacritic
 |
This page uses content from the English Wikipedia page Father of the Bride (1991 film). The list of authors can be seen in the page history. Text from Wikipedia is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License; additional terms may apply. |
