Father of the Bride (1991 film)

Father of the Bride is a 1991 American romantic comedy film starring Steve Martin, Diane Keaton, Kimberly Williams (in her film debut) and Martin Short. It is a remake of the 1950 film of the same name. Martin portrays George Banks, a businessman who becomes flustered while he and his family prepare for his daughter's marriage.

The film opened to positive reviews, and became a box office success. With its success, a sequel, Father of the Bride Part II, was released in 1995. This was Nancy Meyers and Keaton's second of four films together, the first being Baby Boom (1987); the others were Father of the Bride Part II and Something's Gotta Give (2003).

Plot
George Banks is the owner of a successful athletic shoe company called Side Kicks in San Marino, California. George narrates what he had to go through with his daughter's wedding. His 22-year-old daughter Annie, freshly graduated from college, returns home from Europe and announces that she is engaged to Bryan MacKenzie, despite them only having known each other for three months. The sudden shock turns the warm reunion into a heated argument between George and Annie, but they quickly reconcile in time for Bryan to arrive and meet them. Despite Bryan's good financial status and likable demeanor, George takes an immediate dislike to him while his wife, Nina, accepts him as a potential son-in-law. George does not want to let go of his daughter.

George and Nina meet Bryan's parents, John and Joanna MacKenzie, who are wealthy and live in a mansion in Bel Air. John reassures George by also expressing how shocked he had initially been at Bryan's engagement and the two couples find they get along well, but George quickly gets into trouble when he begins nosing around the MacKenzies' financial records. He eventually ends up falling into the pool when cornered by the MacKenzies' aggressive pet Dobermans.

All is forgiven, however, and the Banks family meets with an eccentric European wedding coordinator, Franck Eggelhoffer. He sneers dismissively at George's complaints about the price of wedding items, and George becomes frustrated as Annie and Nina plan for extravagant items such as a flock of swans and alterations to the family home, where the reception is to be held.

When George discovers that the wedding as planned will cost $250 a head, he insists on cutting down the guest list, but soon discovers his complaints are taking away from Annie's happiness and decides to go with the flow. This only lasts so long, though, and he finally snaps when he damages his old tuxedo. He leaves the house to cool off, but ends up causing a disturbance at the supermarket and is arrested. Nina arrives to bail him out of jail on the condition that he stop ruining the wedding.

With help from Nina and Franck, George becomes more relaxed and accepts that the wedding will be expensive. Annie suddenly calls off the wedding after an argument with Bryan over a gift he gave her – a blender, which Annie took to mean he expects her to be a compliant housewife. George takes Bryan out for a drink intending to be rid of him, but seeing how despondent he is at the thought of losing Annie, consoles Bryan and convinces him to reconcile with Annie.

A freak snowstorm arrives the night before the wedding, but Franck and George manage to pull everything together at the last minute. Annie marries Bryan wearing sneakers made by George's company, and George walks his daughter down the aisle, finally accepting that she has grown up.

The reception at the Banks family home goes well thanks to George managing several crises behind the scenes, but as a result, he misses most of the event and is unable to say goodbye to Annie before she and Bryan leave for their honeymoon in Hawaii. The film picks up George's narration from the beginning as the wedding reception ends. Annie calls him from the airport to thank him and tell him that she loves him one last time before they board the plane.

With the house now empty and the wedding finished George finds solace with Nina and dances with her.

Production
The remake rights were acquired by Disney from Turner Entertainment. Touchstone Pictures tapped the studio's finance partner, Touchwood Pacific Partners, to fund the production of the film.

Soundtrack
The film's soundtrack was scored by Alan Silvestri and was influenced by jazz and Christmas instrumentations. It contains the following tracks:


 * 1) "Main Title"
 * 2) "Annie's Theme"
 * 3) "Drive to Brunch"
 * 4) "Snooping Around"
 * 5) "Pool Cue"
 * 6) "Annie Asleep"
 * 7) "Basketball Kiss"
 * 8) "The Wedding"
 * 9) "Snow Scene"
 * 10) "Nina at the Stairs"
 * 11) "The Big Day"
 * 12) "Annie at the Mirror
 * 13) "Pachelbel Canon"
 * 14) "The Way You Look Tonight" - Alan Silvestri, Dorothy Fields
 * 15) "My Annie's Gone"
 * 16) "The Way You Look Tonight (Reprise)"
 * 17) "End Credits"

The following songs are also featured in the film:
 * "My Girl" - The Temptations
 * "(Today I Met) The Boy I'm Going to Marry" - Darlene Love
 * "Chapel of Love" - The Dixie Cups

Reception
Rotten Tomatoes reported that 70% of critics gave Father of the Bride a positive review, based on 44 reviews, with an average rating of 6.00/10. The site's critics consensus reads: "While it doesn't quite hit the heights of the original, this remake of the 1950 classic is pleasantly enjoyable, thanks in large part to winning performances from Steve Martin and Martin Short." At Metacritic the film has a weighted average score of 51 out of 100, based on 17 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A−" on an A+ to F scale.

Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film three stars out of four and called it "one of the movies with a lot of smiles and laughter in it, and a good feeling all the way through." Desson Howe of The Washington Post praised Martin for his performance in it, writing that "it is so funny, it's almost sublime. The explanation is simple: It's all Steve Martin."

The film drew $15 million on its debut. It grossed $89.3 million in the United States and Canada and $40 million internationally, for a worldwide gross of $129 million.

Awards and nominations

 * MTV Movie Awards
 * 1992, nominated, Best Breakthrough Performance - Kimberly Williams
 * 1992, nominated, Best Comedic Performance - Steve Martin


 * BMI Film Awards
 * 1993, won, Best Movie - Father of the Bride


 * Young Artist Award
 * 1993, nominated, Best Young Actor Co-starring in a Motion Picture - Kieran Culkin

Remake
On February 21, 2018, The Hollywood Reporter revealed that remakes of several films are in development as exclusive content for The Walt Disney Company's streaming service Disney+ with one of those projects named in the announcement as Father of the Bride.

On September 24, 2020, Warner Bros. announced their plans for a remake starring a Hispanic family, with the script being penned by Matt Lopez. The HBO Max original film was released on June 16, 2022.