The Parent Trap (1998 film)

The Parent Trap is a 1998 American romantic comedy film co-written and directed by Nancy Meyers, and produced and co-written by Charles Shyer. It is a remake of the 1961 film of the same name and an adaptation of Erich Kästner's German novel Lottie and Lisa (Das doppelte Lottchen).

Dennis Quaid and Natasha Richardson star as a divorced couple who separated shortly after their identical twin daughters' birth; Lindsay Lohan stars (in her film debut) as both twins, Hallie Parker and Annie James, who are fortuitously reunited at summer camp after being separated at birth. David Swift wrote the screenplay for the original 1961 film based on Lottie and Lisa. The story is comparable to that of the 1936 Deanna Durbin film Three Smart Girls. Swift is credited along with Meyers and Shyer as co-writers of the 1998 version.

Plot
In 1986, American winery owner Nicholas "Nick" Parker and British wedding gown designer Elizabeth "Liz" James meet, fall in love, and get married over the course of a transatlantic crossing on the Queen Elizabeth 2. After the birth of their identical twin daughters, Annie and Hallie, they get divorced and each has sole custody of one girl. Nick raises Hallie in Napa Valley, California and Elizabeth raises Annie in London, England.

Eleven years and nine months later in the summer of 1998, Nick and Elizabeth coincidentally send their daughters to Camp Walden, a girls sleep away camp in Maine. Annie and Hallie, who do not know each other, take an immediate dislike to one another.

After a series of pranks, the two are isolated together as punishment until camp is over. They eventually discover that they are twins and hatch a plan for each girl to meet the parent she has never met. After a makeover, where Annie gets a haircut and pierces her ears, Hallie imitates Annie's British accent and flies to London to meet their mother, maternal grandfather (Charles), and the James’s butler (Martin).

Annie imitates Hallie's American accent, and flies to Napa Valley to meet their father, his housekeeper (Chessy) and dog (Sammy). After discovering that their father is engaged to the child-hating gold digger Meredith Blake, Annie and Hallie plot to reunite Elizabeth and Nick by falsely telling Elizabeth that Nick wants to meet her in San Francisco. Chessy, Martin, and Charles discover the girls' secret plan, and want to help them get their parents back together. Nick is shocked, but delighted to see Elizabeth for the first time in years. Meanwhile, Chessy and Martin grow romantically attracted to each other.

Despite the girls' best efforts, which include recreating the night their parents met, they fail to reunite Nick and Elizabeth. The twins resort to a last-ditch effort, by demanding a three-day family camping trip, refusing to reveal which twin is which until after they return; Elizabeth tricks Meredith into taking her place on the camping trip.

Annie and Hallie play a number of pranks on Meredith, who becomes enraged after waking up in the middle of the lake on her air mattress and gives Nick an ultimatum; choose either the girls or her. Nick, finally seeing Meredith for who she truly is, chooses the girls over Meredith much to her dismay, and as a result, she angrily breaks off the engagement and calls off the wedding. Being a responsible father, Nick punishes the girls for their mischief; however, he comments to Elizabeth that he will thank them one day.

Nick and Elizabeth realize they still have feelings for one another, but decide it is better to go their separate ways. Elizabeth and Annie later board a flight for London, but when they arrive, they find Nick and Hallie waiting for them (having taken a faster flight on the Concorde). Nick realizes his previous mistake of not going after Elizabeth when she left him and proposes to her. Photos show Nick and Elizabeth getting remarried aboard the Queen Elizabeth 2, with Annie and Hallie as bridesmaids, and Martin proposing to Chessy.

Cast and characters

 * Lindsay Lohan as Hallie Parker and Annie James, eleven-year-old twin sisters who were separated after birth. Following their parents' divorce, they were raised separately with no knowledge of each other's existence — until they meet at summer camp by chance. Erin Mackey was Lohan's acting double for the scenes where the twins appear together.
 * Dennis Quaid as Nicholas "Nick" Parker, Annie and Hallie's father, a wealthy American winemaker.
 * Natasha Richardson as Elizabeth "Liz" James, Annie and Hallie's mother, a wealthy British wedding gown designer.
 * Elaine Hendrix as Meredith Blake, a 26-year-old child-hating publicist who is planning to marry Nick for his money.
 * Lisa Ann Walter as Chessy, Nick’s housekeeper. She meets and falls in love with Martin. She also discovers that "Hallie" is actually Annie after noticing her strange behavior.
 * Simon Kunz as Martin, the James family's butler, who falls in love with Chessy.
 * Polly Holliday as Marva Kulp Sr., the owner and manager of Camp Walden.
 * Maggie Wheeler as Marva Kulp Jr., Marva Kulp Sr.'s daughter and assistant.
 * Ronnie Stevens as Charles James, Elizabeth's father and Annie and Hallie's maternal grandfather. After he catches Hallie on the phone with Annie, she tells him about switching places.
 * Joanna Barnes as Vicki Blake, Meredith's mother.
 * J. Patrick McCormack as Les Blake, Meredith's father.

Lohan's mother, Dina, and siblings, Michael, Aliana and Cody, all appear in uncredited cameos at the airport.

Production
Principal photography started on July 15, 1997, in London, United Kingdom, and continued in Napa Valley AVA, San Francisco, Lake Arrowhead, and Los Angeles, California.

Music
The song used in the opening sequence in which glimpses of Nick and Elizabeth'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 Nick and Elizabeth'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 girls and their parents cross paths serendipitously is "In the Mood", which was previously made famous by the Glenn Miller band. Later in the hotel, Hallie sings a few bars of "Let's Get Together", a tune from the first version of the film that was a hit for its star, Hayley Mills. The song is also quoted over the Walt Disney Pictures logo, and at the end of Alan Silvestri's closing credits suite.

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.

The background song heard in the campfire scene is "How Bizarre" by the music group OMC.

The tune playing as Hallie and Annie are making their way up to the Isolation Cabin is the main theme from "The Great Escape" by Elmer Bernstein.

Critical response
The review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reported an 86% approval rating with an average rating of 6.8/10 based on 50 reviews. The website's consensus states: "Writer-director Nancy Meyers takes the winning formula of the 1961 original and gives it an amiable modern spin, while young star Lindsay Lohan shines in her breakout role." Metacritic gave the film a score of 64/100, based on reviews from 19 critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews.

Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert each gave the film three stars. Critic Kenneth Turan called Lindsay Lohan "the soul of this film as much as Hayley Mills was of the original", going on to say that "she is more adept than her predecessor at creating two distinct personalities".

Lohan won a Young Artist Award for best performance in a feature film.

Box office
In its opening weekend, the film grossed $11,148,497 in 2,247 theaters in the United States and Canada, ranking #2 at the box office, behind Saving Private Ryan. By the end of its run, The Parent Trap grossed $66,308,518 domestically and $25,800,000 internationally, totaling $92,108,518 worldwide. The film was released in the United Kingdom on December 11, 1998, and opened on #3, behind Rush Hour and The Mask of Zorro.

Remake
In February 2018, it was revealed that remakes of several films are in development as exclusive content for Walt Disney Studios' upcoming streaming service Disney+; with one of those named in the announcement being The Parent Trap.