Hayley Mills or Lindsay Lohan – Pick your poison
In memory of Natasha Richardson, Chad and I watched both of the Parent Trap movies over the last two days. Though Richardson was only in the second of the films, Chad has been living in a cave for a while, and so hadn’t seen either film, resulting in the obviously required viewing of both movies. We watched them in order, the 1961 Hayley Mills original Sunday night, and the 1998 Lindsay Lohan remake tonight. From my post-movie perusing of IMBD I have found out that there are three sequels to the original, all having in common Hayley Mills, at least one set of multiples, and some sort of romantic parental “trap”. I think we’ll stay away from those for now though.
I don’t have a lot to say about the two films; I’d seen them both before, and still find them both enjoyable. I love the song and dance performed by the twins in the original and the character of the minister, and in the remake I especially enjoy the soundtrack, the appearance of the actor who played the original young gold digger as the new gold digger’s mother, and the cute if trite secondary love story between the housekeeper and butler. I’m just grateful some things changed between ‘61 and ‘98, at least in the movies.
For example, I’d never noticed before how the mother in the original begins desperate attempts to get her ex back almost as soon as she arrives in CA, even though she showed no interest in this while back home. She seems to relish her ex’s embarrassment and his fiance’s discomfort at her presence, attire, etc. He resists her overtures until after he gets dumped, and he’s watching his ex-wife prepare dinner in the kitchen, going so far as to mention that he likes her in her bare feet, when he becomes interested in re-kindling the romance.
The second film is a bit more progressive, thank god. The father even offers to cook dinner for his ex! Richardson’s character is just as resistant to making up as Dennis Quaid’s character, if not more so. She doesn’t go out of her way to be hold back her poor opinion of her ex’s new wife, but she’s not shamelessly flirting either, and hardly domestic. Sadly there are still instances of domestic violence – in the original, the woman punches her ex-husband in the eye during an argument; in the remake, there are allusions to both his ex-wife throwing a hair dryer at him and his ex-fiance throwing her engagement ring at him. The fact that these events occurred at the end of the relationships hardly justifies their happening and being taken lightly.
The premise of the movies in general is fairly absurd and certainly sad – the estranged couple are so bitter from their break-up that they keep their children from knowing each other and their other parent; on viewing the movies once more, it seems hard to believe that such devoted parents wouldn’t think twice over 11 years about getting to meet their other daughter themselves. At any rate, the idea is contrived but the execution is primarily fun and harmless. And I absolutely love Natasha Richardson and am sad for her family that she is gone. Back to watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer!
