Spotlight
Spotlight Date: 22-February-04
Spoiler Rating: Medium
The Parent Trap (1961) and The Parent Trap (1998)
"The Parent Trap" is a fairy tale about how children can defend the family against the pitfalls of modern life. A rose-colored daydream for kids and adults (but mostly preteen girls), it promises that the young and innocent can discover their soul mates by learning to get along with others, and the mature and disillusioned can do the same by restoring their faith in love. The 1961 and 1998 versions of the movie (both produced by Disney) differ in a number of ways but deliver the same chirpy message of one big happy family, happily ever after. Comparing the two yields some interesting insights into the social climate and (perceived) challenges for women in the era in which they appeared.
The basic story of "The Parent Trap" breaks the fairy tale mold in one glaring respect: its young heroines don't come from destitute, loveless pasts, but rather stinkin' rich and affectionate (if broken) homes. Two girls (Susan & Sharon in '61; Hallie & Annie in '98) meet at summer camp and quickly realize that (a) they look exactly alike, and (b) they can't stand each other. This enmity leads to cruel mutual pranks and eventually lands them in an isolated cabin reserved for troublemakers. Once thrown together, they figure out that they're twins, split up as babies when their parents went their separate ways. Since each girl wants to meet the parent she never knew, they hatch a plan to switch places at the end of the summer. Not only that, but they decide that since neither parent has remarried, there must be some hope of reuniting them. This, of course, becomes their quest.
The 1961 movie stars Hayley Mills as the twins and Maureen O'Hara and Brian Keith as their unsuspecting prey. The chief idiosyncrasy of this film is its atmosphere of winking sexuality, an intimation that hormones are working everywhere but should never be regarded straight on. (This is more feasible here, where the girls are 13, than in the remake, where they're only 11.) Indeed, sex appears to be the second most important means of communication between males and females, the foremost being manipulation. Using an old-fashioned (but by no means extinct) point of view, the movie depicts men and women as essentially opposing creatures who must come together to achieve a successful adulthood and therefore play all sorts of games to make their impossible connection work. As the weaker sex with more at stake, most of the gamesmanship falls to the lot of women. If the males in this movie come across as little more than lovable doofuses ruled by their gonads, the females, from the girls to their septuagenarian grandmother, operate solely by browbeating or conniving. Although Dad's horrible new fiancée, Vicky (Joanna Barnes), is meant to be laughed at or reviled as the Bad Woman, the only difference between her and the others is that she plays the game out of greed, and they play it out of more acceptable motivations (such as, in Mom's case, the desire to escape spinsterhood and living with her parents). For his part, Dad just wants to be taken care of (while getting a little nooky), which explains why it's not the meticulous seduction of the intended trophy wife that finally wins his heart, but the sight of his ex in the kitchen, barefoot, her buxom figure suggestive of the matronly pleasures a woman like Vicky could never provide.
In the 1998 remake, newcomer Lindsay Lohan shines as Hallie and Annie, with Dennis Quaid and Natasha Richardson backing her up as Mom and Dad. My slight preference for this version derives mostly from the edited back story about the parents' relationship (and the fact that the female characters don't burst into song, which is a trait of the late-'50s/early '60s that I have mocked elsewhere, e.g., "An Affair to Remember" and "Houseboat"). From the opening credits and some later statements, we learn that the parents met and hastily married on a cruise from London to New York, and parted in a fit of passion less than two years later. Unlike in the first picture, where they just don't seem to be compatible (cats and dogs, you know), here the parents have shared something magical that dwindled in the harsh light of the everyday (and the arrival of children, their own youthful impetuousness, etc.). This makes their reunion more feasible and more palatable.
Director Nancy Meyers ("What Women Want," "Something's Gotta Give") apparently enjoys making statements about the feminine experience that have widespread appeal, but here her conclusions seem forced (not to mention depressing), perhaps because of the necessity of adhering to a story from another day and age. As far as the twins are concerned, she simply taps into the current "girls rule" trend, giving them even more of a charmed life than before (they excel at fencing and poker-playing as well as horseback riding and French, and positively drown in the fabulousness of their parents' Napa Valley/European lifestyles). But when it comes to the mother, the message gets a little hazier. In this world, women, at least, don't need to marry to get a life, so that sex and romance have become the gravy instead of the meat of adult existence. Consequently, the old games are obsolete and the only one still playing, i.e., Dad's gold-digging fiancée (Elaine Hendrix), is not only unsavory but a fool. However, in the 37 years during which this shift has taken place, the man has not evolved at all (he's still little more than a lovable doofus ruled by his gonads), and the woman has gained her autonomy at a price. In an ungainly scene not found in the original film, Richardson spurns Quaid's initial attempt at reconciliation because, as she says, she needs to stay strong. Apparently, she sees only two options: to forge and maintain an independent life on her own, without love, or to cave in to the softer emotions that once defined femininity, losing herself in the process. (The fact that she designs wedding gowns and swoons at the mention of her ex-husband's name hints that she wanted only one option all along.) While I agree that the notion of "having it all" is probably a pipe dream, the message that love for women means surrender to a doofus doesn't sit well in a movie that aims to show girls that there's nothing they can't do, and that wishing and trying (and, okay, manipulating a little) can make dreams come true.
If, in the next remake, the father were not quite so pathetic, the main comic elements of "The Parent Trap" would have to be reworked. (Perhaps the girls could be bumbling but adorable goofballs?) For now, neither 20th-century version fully satisfies, since it leaves the parents trapped in an emotionally antagonistic but socially necessary union, or an emotionally compatible but socially constricting one.
Copyright © 2004 The Jujube (M. I. Kim). All rights reserved.
