The Parent Trap (1998 film)

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The Parent Trap
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Nancy Meyers
Produced by	Charles Shyer Bruce A. Block (co-producer) Julie B. Crane (associate producer)
Written by	David Swift Nancy Meyers Charles Shyer Erich Kästner (story)
Starring	Dennis Quaid Natasha Richardson Lindsay Lohan
Music by	Alan Silvestri
Cinematography	Dean Cundey
Editing by	Stephen A. Rotter
Distributed by	Buena Vista Distribution
Release date(s)	July 29, 1998
Running time	127 min.
Country	United States
Language	English
Gross revenue	$92.1 million (worldwide)

The Parent Trap is a 1998 family film a remake of 1961's film of the same name. This remake is directed by Nancy Meyers and stars Dennis Quaid, Natasha Richardson and Lindsay Lohan. The film is based on Erich Kästner's novel Lottie and Lisa (Das Doppelte Lottchen). The plot involves a pair of twins who have been separated at birth and, upon meeting by chance, decide to work together to reunite their divorced parents.

[edit] Synopsis

Hallie Parker (Lindsay Lohan) is an eleven-year-old girl growing up in the Napa Valley with her father, Nicholas "Nick" Parker (Dennis Quaid), a successful vineyard owner and a viticulturist. Her identical twin sister, Annie James (Lindsay Lohan), is a Londoner living with her wedding-gown-designer mother, Elizabeth "Lizzie" James (Natasha Richardson). Nick and Lizzie divorced and never saw each other again shortly after having the twins, and they each agreed to take one of them. Therefore, neither twin knows that the other exists.

By coincidence, Hallie and Annie are both sent to Camp Walden by Moosehead Lake in Maine to spend the summer. When they meet first, the two are fervent rivals who share an allergy to strawberries, great skill at poker and fencing, and the ability to produce imaginative mischief. When this mischief, perpetrated against each other, causes the camp supervisors to punish them by isolating them so that they may only be with each other, Hallie and Annie soon discover a series of strange coincidences. They both love Oreos with peanut butter, share the same birthday of October 11, and lastly discover they both have the other half of a photo of their parents. While still exiled from mainstream camp activity, they work on a plan to switch places at the end of summer, so each twin will be able to get to know the parent she had never met. To do this, the two twins have to learn to adopt each other's physical traits and individual accents. Additionally, Hallie cuts Annie's hair into a shorter style to match her own. Having done this, she realizes that, unlike her, Annie does not have pierced ears - a difference which could reveal the deception. After some initial resistance to the idea, Annie eventually agrees to let Hallie pierce her ears using a sewing needle.

The plan is successful. Hallie goes to England, where she meets her mother, befriends her mother's trusted butler Martin (who is a confidant of Annie), and becomes acquainted with her grandfather. Annie assumes her sister's identity and travels to California where she meets her sister's housekeeper and nanny, Chessy.

Annie, who has joined Nick in Napa and assumed Hallie's place, learns that their father plans soon to marry his ambitious young publicist, Meredith Blake, who does not love Nick and is only after his considerable fortune. Annie contacts Hallie to reveal the new situation, forcing both girls to speed up their plan to get their parents to rendezvous.

It is not long before Chessy discovers Annie's true identity. In London, the switch is discovered by her grandfather, who instructs Hallie to reveal her true identity to her mother, fabricating a story that Nick wants to meet them at the Stafford Hotel in San Francisco. Hallie, Martin, and Lizzie hop on a British Airways 747 and head for San Francisco. In fact, Nick has made no such plans, and, in turn, has been tricked into visiting the same hotel by Annie, on the pretense that he is to meet Meredith's parents. Martin and Chessy are involved in the secret as well, and after meeting they become romantically involved. Nick has no idea that Elizabeth is present until they finally cross paths. At the hotel, the plot is revealed to Elizabeth after she catches Nick in an elevator with Meredith.

With the help of Martin and Chessy, the twins set up a secret date for their parents. While Nick and Elizabeth are unaware of what awaits them, the girls bring them to a docked ship and attempt to recreate their parents' first meeting, on the QE2. Martin and Chessy wait on them while the girls leave them alone to rekindle their relationship. It is during this candlelit dinner that both Nick and Elizabeth discuss how the other has reached his or her career goals, and each is thoroughly impressed by the others' success. It is also revealed that both Nick and Elizabeth can't really remember why it was that they got divorced, although faint memories of the incidents surrounding their separation still exist. Nick asks Elizabeth how it was that they ended up apart, and she responds with "I got on my very first 747, and you didn't come after me."

Nick and Elizabeth feel that reuniting would be impractical, despite their daughters' efforts to recreate the former attachment between them; they therefore plan to return to their respective lives, though plans are made to allow for the twins to spend holidays together throughout the year. Hallie and Annie disapprove of this plan, and insist that Nick take both of them on the promised annual camping trip. Nick and Elizabeth follow through, partly because the twins have refused to reveal which one is which until the trip is complete.

Back in Napa, as the group is ready to leave for the camping trip, Elizabeth insists that Meredith join them and while Meredith is less than anxious to attend, she does not approve of her fiance being alone with his ex-wife. Elizabeth announces that she will not attend. The twins are furious, but Elizabeth insists, explaining that it is important for Meredith to become better acquainted with her soon-to-be step-daughters, However, Elizabeth is actually tricking Meredith. While on the trip, the twins (inspired by the tricks they played on each other at Camp Walden) play tricks on her, taking advantage of her lack of camping experience, including putting rocks in her backpack, placing a lizard on her Evian Bottle and then on her head, replacing her insect repellent with sugar water, teaching her a silly and irrelevant "trick" to ward off mountain lions and even setting her air mattress afloat in the lake while she is sleeping from a very large sleeping pill they used to replace her standard large pill. Eventually, an enraged and drenched Meredith orders Nick to choose between marriage to her and the companionship of his daughters; Nick gleefully chooses the latter. The twins are relieved, believing that their opportunity to reunite their parents has risen.

Back at the vineyard estate, Nick is giving Elizabeth a tour of his wine cellar, and they come across a chest of his special reserve wine. After showing Elizabeth a few select bottles from special dates in history, he gets to one bottle that Elizabeth does not recognize. Nick explains that this was the wine they drank at their wedding, and when she remarks how it was indeed good wine, he comments that he would share it with no one else but her. They nearly kiss, but are interrupted by Chessy returning to the house. Elizabeth and Annie soon bid a tearful farewell to Nick and Hallie, and return to London.

When Elizabeth and Annie arrive at their home in England, Hallie is there waiting for them, and she remarks how amazing it is that the Concorde flight can get to England in only half the time. Nick then appears and says that while he had made a mistake in letting her leave him before; he followed her this time and will not let her go. The couple embrace, and the film ends with Hallie saying, "We actually did it!" The final credits feature photographs of a second wedding between Nick and Elizabeth aboard the "QE2." Photographs also appear that suggest Martin proposed to Chessy on the night of Nick and Elizabeth's wedding.

[edit] Cast

• Dennis Quaid as Nicholas Parker
• Natasha Richardson as Elizabeth James
• Lindsay Lohan as Hallie Parker/Annie James
• Elaine Hendrix as Meredith Blake
• Lisa Ann Walter as Chessy Parker
• Simon Kunz as Martin Tattersall
• Polly Holliday as Marva Kulp, Sr.
• Maggie Wheeler as Marva Kulp, Jr.
• Katerina Graham as Jackie
• Ronnie Stevens as Grandpa Charles James
• Joanna Barnes as Vicki Blake
• Erin Mackey as Hallie/Annie acting double
• Hallie Meyers-Shyer as Lindsay, Annie's friend
• Katrina Gramham as Jackie, Annie's friend
• Maggie Emma Thomas as Zoe, Hallie's friend
• Courtney Woods as Nicole, Hallie's friend

Minor roles

The lost boy who shows up at the girls camp is played by Michael Lohan Jr., Lindsay Lohan's younger brother. When Hallie arrives in London and meets Martin at the airport, Lindsay Lohan's mother, Dina Lohan, can be seen holding her little brother, Dakota Lohan. By her is Lindsay's younger sister Aliana.

[edit] Production

Filming took place from July to December 1997 at various locations in California and London, England.^[1] The outside of the Stafford Hotel was filmed in front of the Administration Building on Treasure Island in San Francisco Bay. The production of this film also took place at the Staglin Family Vineyard in Napa County.

The twins in this version are named after director Nancy Meyers's and producer Charles Shyer's daughters Annie Meyers Shyer and Hallie Meyers-Shyer, both of whom have small parts in the movie. Hallie plays a girl at camp at the beginning who asks where the Navajo bunk is, and Annie plays the towel girl at the hotel, who brings Elizabeth the first aid kit.

When Nick introduces Annie (pretending to be Hallie) to Meredith, the reveal of Meredith was not shot in slow motion; that was how Elaine Hendrix raised her head herself.^[1]

Lindsay Lohan had to have her ears pierced especially for her role in this film.

[edit] Music

The song used in the opening sequence in which glimpses of Elizabeth and Nick's first wedding is seen is Nat King Cole's "L-O-V-E". The song used in the end credits, in which photos of Elizabeth and Nick's second wedding is seen, is his daughter Natalie Cole's "This Will Be (an Everlasting Love)".

The instrumental music featured prominently in the hotel scene where the twins and their parents cross paths serendipitously is "In the Mood", which was previously made famous by the Glenn Miller band.

When Hallie shows up at Annie's poker game at Camp Walden, the music used is "Bad to the Bone" by George Thorogood and the Destroyers.

[edit] Soundtrack

1. L-O-V-E - Nat King Cole
2. Do You Believe In Magic - The Lovin' Spoonful
3. There She Goes - The La's
4. Top Of The World - Shonen Knife
5. Here Comes the Sun - Bob "Bronx Style" Khaleel
6. I Love You For Sentimental Reasons - Linda Ronstadt
7. Soulful Strut - Young Holt Unlimited
8. Never Let You Go - Jakaranda
9. Bad To The Bone - George Thorogood & The Destroyers
10. The Happy Club - Bob Geldof
11. Suite From The Parent Trap - Alan Silvestri
12. This Will Be (An Everlasting Love) - Natalie Cole
13. Dream Come True - Ta-Gana
14. Groovin' - Pato Banton & The Reggae Revolutation
15. Let's Get Together - Nobody's Angel

[edit] Film Score

1. The Disney Logo
2. Suite From The Parent Trap
3. Annie And Martin
4. Shake Hands, Girls
5. Like Twins
6. Changes
7. Hallie Meets Mom
8. Annie Meets Dad
9. Vineyard Suite
10. I Am Annie
11. Dad's Getting Married
12. Hallie Breaks The News
13. You'll Kill In It
14. Table For Two
15. She's Gone
16. Where Dreams Have No End
17. We Actually Did It
18. Finale

[edit] Response

The film was meet with generally positive reviews, holding a 78%^[2] on Rotten Tomatoes. The movie entered the box office charts at number 2 on July, 31, 1998. It ended up with a U.S. gross of over $66 million^[3] It has made $92,108,518 worldwide^[4]

The film debuted on United Lands television (The Family Film Channel) on October 4, 1999, and had 5.43 million viewers.

[edit] Versions

A television version of the film, as seen on the Disney Channel and ABC Family, is edited from the theatrical version. The first edit is in the scene where Hallie is piercing Annie's ears: the shot of the needle visibly entering Annie's ear has been cut. The BBFC also edited this version in the UK version, for under-age girls trying to ear pierce themselves. Some DVD releases contain this edited version. Another edit is during the scene when Annie talks with Meredith: Annie's line, "But, if you ask me, marriage is supposed to be based on something more than just sex, right?" and when Annie looks at her father's house, she shouts,"Oh my god! Oh my God!" have been removed. Also, the scene when Hallie takes the sip of English wine (as a taste test), and telling everyone else at the table she is more familiar with, and prefers, California wine has been removed and/or shortened as well. Not all television broadcasts of the film contain these edits. "Oh my god!" would under BBFC rules makes a film rating become a 12 or 12A.

[edit] Deleted scenes

The scene slots between Hallie and Martin meeting at Heathrow Airport, and Hallie meeting her mother and grandfather. Hallie is in a limo and they come across Buckingham Palace. She gets out and tries to get one of the guards to move. The guards then crowd around in formation as the Queen exits Buckingham Palace in a car. The window rolls down and Hallie speaks to the Queen, getting confused with 'Your Highness' or 'Your Majesty' or whether to curtsy. The Queen promises not to tell a soul and moves off. Director Nancy Meyers had a difficult time getting the uniforms, location, and an actress to play the Queen. Although the scene is shot well, the scene was deleted due to pacing problems.

Another deleted scene appears in the trailer that debuted in 1998. The scene shows Annie standing out on the deck of her vineyard-estate house. She sees a shooting star and sings the rhyme "Starlight, Starbright." Hallie appears standing outside her window, too.

In the original draft of the script, many scenes have been altered or deleted. An extended ear-piercing scene is in. While putting the needle through Annie's ear, Hallie screams and passes out. Annie smacks Hallie in the face, trying to wake her up. Hallie asks, "Are you bleeding to death?" Annie tells her no and shows Hallie the needle again. Hallie passes out again. Continuity Photos of this scene exists so it can be assumed some filming took place

There is a girl in Annie's cabin that has shoulder-length hair and gets syrup poured on her when Hallie and her friends set a trap in their cabins. This girl was named Crosby in the original draft and gets tricked by Hallie, pretending to be Annie, to kiss her.

An extended scene, Elizabeth delves further into why she and Nick didn't stay together long. She says, "I tried living in California, He tried living in London..." Hallie replies, "So you broke up?" Elizabeth tells Hallie that they were the best thing about the whole situation and they continue to stroll down the streets of London.

There is a part where Annie and Hallie are both in their respective stalls taking a bath and Hallie's soap goes over to Annie's stall. As Annie hands the soap back to Hallie, they both feel electrified. Continuity Photos of this scene exists so it can be assumed some filming took place

There is an extended ending at the end where Hallie tells Annie: "You guys are going to love living in California." To that Annie replies: "California? You guys are going to love living in London" Hallie then replies London? In the front yard Sammy is barking to the poodle next door as Martin and Chessy are kissing and Grandfather is getting home.

It is unknown if the scenes above were filmed.

[edit] The Parent Trap — references to the 1961 version

As this film is a remake of the 1961 The Parent Trap, it features a number of references to the film it is based on. Among them are:

• The use of the Sherman Brothers song "Let's Get Together."
• Meredith talks to a "Reverend Mosby," named after a character in the original film.
• Some of the dialogue is almost identical to the 1961 movie
• Hallie and Annie use Mildred Plotker as cover names.
• Actress Joanna Barnes, who played Vicky (a character like Meredith) in the original film, plays Meredith's mother (also named Vicky) in this film.
• The camp counselors, Marva Kulp Sr. and Jr., are named after Nancy Kulp, who played the younger camp counselor in the original.
• The use of the sugar and water mosquito repellent which the twins give Meredith was also given to Vicky in the original film

[edit] Pop culture reference

After Hallie arrives in London, she and her mother walk across the street together, on the same street, zebra crossing, and with the same cars as the Abbey Road album cover. The song "Here Comes The Sun" (written by George Harrison) plays; the screen even pauses while they are walking across.

When the camp counselors are leading Hallie and Annie to the isolation cabin, the music playing over the scene is the march from The Great Escape.

In numerous scenes, the girls refer to Meredith as Cruella De Vil.

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• The Parent Trap at the Internet Movie Database
• YouTube - Theatrical trailer
• The Parent Trap at Allmovie
• The Parent Trap at Rotten Tomatoes
• The Parent Trap Double Trouble Edition DVD Review