Features: Magazine | Literary Review | Life | Metro Plus | Open Page | Education Plus | Book Review | Business | SciTech | Friday Review | Young World | Property Plus | Quest | Folio |

Video Watch

This fortnight at Indiaplaza.in

The Parent Trap (1998) Walt Disney Directed by: Nancy Meyers Writers: Erich Kastner (Book)David Swift (Screenplay) Cast: Lindsay Lohan, Dennis Quaid, Natasha Richardson, Elaine Hendrix, Lisa Ann Walter and Simon Kunz

It is not uncommon to compare any remake with the original. Walt Disney’s 1998 version of the 1961 comedy comes up almost aces as compared with the original version. The 1998 version was the launch pad for Lindsay Lohan and her portrayal of the twins Annie and Hallie deserves kudos.

The plot of “The Parent Trap” is similar to a Bollywood tearjerker. Eleven-year-old twins

Annie and Hallie are separated at birth and brought up by their respective single parents. Annie lives in London and her mother (Natasha Richardson) is a reputed wedding gown designer. Hallie is brought up by her father (Dennis Quaid), who owns a thriving vineyard in California.

The twins by a one in a million chance are sent to the same holiday camp where they first are bristling with animosity for each other. A series of pranks and jests ensue and when they cross the limit, the twins earn the wrath of the camp administrators Marva Kulp and Marva Kulp Junior (played by Maggie Wheeler also seen as the obnoxious Janice in the TV Series “Friends”). Annie and Hallie are banished to the isolation hut where they stumble upon the fact that they are actually twins.

Hallie hatches a plan to switch places with Annie so that she can see her mother and Annie can see her father and when they are re-exchanged hopefully their parents would re-marry and they would all get back together again as one big happy family.

Hallie’s sojourn in London is a real visual delight especially when mother and daughter drive through London and even cross Abbey Road with the background exactly the same as on the Beatles’ cover of the Album with the Volkswagen et al.

The 90s version sticks basically to the same plot as the one which starred Hayley Mills. The names of the main characters are changed but most of the highlights of the first version are retained. Lindsay Lohan even hums a few bars of the song “Let’s Get together” made famous by Hayley Mills.

The pranks played by the twins to antagonise the fortune hunting fiancée of father Nick are repeats of the first version but are wacky enough to evoke squeals of delight from the kids watching the movie. The selection of musical numbers as background music in the film is also spot- on.

Many of the scenes are guaranteed to tug at your heart- strings. So all of you who sob freely at the emotional scenes in the movies keep enough hankies with you to soak up the tears. The comic scenes however are much more than the weeping one so the movie comes out great.

Now if we could just get our hands on the Hayley Mills version we could really compare what we saw as teen-agers and what our kids got to see now.

My guess is (after comparing other remakes like the “Thomas Crown Affair” with Steve McQueen/Pierce Brosnan and Faye Dunaway/Rene Russo) the original always is a shade ahead.

D. RAVI SHANKAR

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail