‘Drive carefully. And don’t forget to fasten your condom...’
If there is one area of ’90s cinema that I haven’t properly explored, it’s romcoms. It’s a genre I’ve never warmed to. Mainly because I’m a miserable misanthrope with a heart made of stone. Father of the Bride is a weird one because it’s not a rom-com really. It has some romance, and it is funny, but the focus of this film, as suggested by the title, is very much a father-daughter relationship. And it is for this reason that Father of the Bride is so successful…
When Annie Banks (Kimberly Williams-Paisley), freshly graduated from college, returns from Europe with Bryan MacKenzie (George Newbern) and declares him her fiance, this causes great consternation for her father George (Steve Martin), and her mother Nina (Diane Keaton).
Whilst Charles Shyer’s film is a remake of Vincente Minnelli’s Oscar-winning classic, it is this version that has lodged itself into the public consciousness. I found this surprising for the entire first half of the movie which is short on both laughs and ingenuity. The opening 45 minutes are very much what I expected. Some ‘hilarious’ misunderstandings. Some over-the-top avarice from Martin. A bit of slapstick humour thrown in. But at the mid-point, from the moment that George takes Bryan out for a drink and some fatherly advice following yet another misunderstanding, Father of the Bride takes a sharp turn for the better. Sure, it’s overly sentimental, but crucially, both Williams-Paisley and Martin fully sell the father-daughter relationship that they share. And it is genuinely joyous to behold. You forget how good Martin can be when he plays it straight, and this more subtle and nuanced section of the movie also allows for some of the biggest laughs. It helps that Diane Keaton is just so damn likeable and the two of them together make for a great time, but it is Martin who holds the whole thing together and ensures that what should be an old-fashioned anachronism ends up feeling timeless.
Father of the Bride isn’t a classic by any means, but it is a showcase for the wonderful talents of Steve Martin and his supporting cast, and for that, it should be applauded.