Film
The Parent Trap
- Director
- Nancy Meyers
- Certificate
- PG
- Running Time
- 125 mins
Having established this tale of separated siblings as a money-spinning classic back in 1961, Disney cashed in with this 1998 remake. It’s nothing more than a child-oriented, light and blatantly sentimental family film, rolling inexorably towards a happy ending – but the good news for parents is that it’s done well enough to keep everyone entertained.
At a summer camp, cocky 11-year-old Yankette Hallie Parker is somewhat perturbed to meet her spitting image in posh Brit Annie James. A brief feud ensues, culminating in a reasonably excruciating truth-dawning, yes-we’re-twins moment. The pair, separated in infancy, then hatch a cunning plan to reunite their estranged parents Dennis Quaid and Natasha Richardson. There’s no doubt that the young Lindsay Lohan fills Hayley Mills’s boots admirably in her transatlantic double role, and the adults play out the tear-jerking stuff to great effect. Damnit, even the comic relief butler raises a smile or two.
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