reviewed by: Charity Bishop

            

I don't believe that we women entirely understand the lengths that our fathers go to secure our happiness. Generally we misunderstand their concerns in the way we dress, talk, and act as being possessive and demanding when in reality they're only trying to protect "their baby girl" for a few more years. As George Banks (Steve Martin) says in the opening of The Father of the Bride, "you stop worrying about her meeting the wrong kind of guy... and you worry about her meeting the right one."

Maybe that's why a film like Father of the Bride hits all the right notes. While we're laughing uproariously at George's moments of "over-reaction," we also manage to empathize with his plight... his little girl is growing up and going away. Fathers in particular will find this film bittersweet, and all girls should see it at least once before they get married. If anything else, to save their parent's checkbook... and their hearts. George Banks is the kind of guy who doesn't like change. He's driven the same car for thirty years, has lived in the some house for twenty, and believes firmly that family is very important. Which is probably why he doesn't take the news all that well. His daughter Annie (Kimberly Williams), fresh from six months study in Rome, has come home wearing an engagement ring. Gone are his ideas of the little girl who used to hang on his every word and regard him as the center of her universe. In his place is a "homely looking, unemployed business consultant" by the name of Bryan Mackenzie (George Newbern).

After his tactics at talking her out of it fail, George is forced to cope with the truth... that his daughter is going to get married with or without his help. Everyone else is thrilled about it, but he contents himself with sulking, watching America's Most Wanted in the hope of seeing Bryan's face, and attempting to keep a tight hold on the family checkbook. Then he meets their future in-laws. Wealthy, sophisticated and eccentric, the Mackenzies have a high profile mansion, several purebred fighting dogs, and high expectations for him to live up to. 

Refusing to allow them to help pay for the extravagant wedding that his wife and daughter have planned, George warily agrees to hire a wedding planner. Franck is high-pitched, high-priced, and irritating. His ideas about the wedding reception at the Banks' home involve a lot of remodeling. But that still doesn't solve the problem... George doesn't want his daughter to get married. As time grows short, and opportunity presents itself, he may go too far... or nor far enough. Can he prevent the inevitable... before he looses Annie forever? Surprisingly poignant and touching, The Father of the Bride hits the parent in all of us since sooner or later every girl gets married. It manages to be uproariously funny and sweet all at once. Steve Martin makes George Banks likable and yet over-the-top, whether it's his hallucinations about the real Annie and her perspective husband, or his reaction to the hilariously comical Franck. This was Kimberley Williams' first movie, and since then she's become almost a household name. With Martin Short, Diane Keaton, and Kieran Culkin in supporting roles, it becomes a well-rounded cast.

I love it for its simplicity and bittersweet conclusion. My siblings love it for George's reactions and Franck, and my parents are both able to identify with George and his wife Nina. It's also surprisingly light content-wise. There is some mild profanity and a few abuses of God's name, but otherwise there's very little violence and only mild sensuality. In a slip of the tongue, George mentions condoms, to the embarrassment of his daughter. Nina reminds him in some light banter how he kept coming on to her in their parents' house before the wedding. The most problematic area is Franck himself. Is he or is he not gay? He probably is, although I never thought of him as being that way merely due to his foreign accent. (It plays kind of like a bad impression of Dracula-esque Transylvanian.) But George's reaction to him, as well as some of his feminine habits, are pretty obvious. It's only rarely we allow a film with a stereotyped gay character onto our family shelf, but Father of the Bride is just sweet and funny enough to get away with it.