PARENT TRAP, THE - DVD review

Everything comes in pairs: This is the second DVD release of the second movie version of the story about twins.

When I first heard that the Disney studios were remaking their 1961 Haley Mills film, my first reaction was to wonder why. The first film was a minor family classic; it was in widescreen, stereo, and color. What more could be done with it? Then I watched the 1998 update with Lindsay Lohan, and noted that virtually everything had remained as before, not surprising as both stories are based on the same 1949 novel, "Das Doppelte Lottchen," by Erich Kastner. There are the same characters, the same script, the same settings; even the timings for the two movies are close to the same. Again, what was the point? Moreover, it seemed to me that with the passage of time, children would probably view both movies as ancient history. Yet I found the remake almost equally entertaining as the original, and I was quite satisfied. Maybe that was the point--to enchant a whole new generation of youngsters with the story, while tempting an older generation to watch it again. Whatever, it worked, and I enjoyed it.

Before I forget, let me mention, too, the background songs. In the original movie, the three prominent songs were "The Parent Trap," "For Now For Always," and, most memorably, "Let's Get Together." This time out, there is a plentitude of pop songs as background music, and the "Let's Get Together" tune can be heard during the opening logo and later hummed by Ms. Lohan in a hotel lobby. What's more, the original movie featured a take-off on the "Colonel Bogey March" from "The Bridge on the River Kwai," and this time we hear the march from "The Great Escape." It's all cleverly and seamlessly integrated into the film's framework.

Not that many of you reading this need much reminding about the plot: What with the original having been a smash hit and the newer one a minor hit, almost everybody has seen it. But for the uninitiated, the story concerns twin girls whose parents divorced before they were born, at which point each parent took one of the children to raise, and the kids never meet until they coincidentally show up at the same summer camp. In the original both twins were played by Haley Mills, using trick photography and body doubles. In the new film the twins are both played by Lindsay Lohan, again using split screens, special effects, and body doubles. The biggest difference is that Ms. Lohan at eleven years of age is a few years younger than Ms. Mills was in the role; and Lohan does not appear quite as energetic as Mills was. Still, the new youngster is effective in a most sympathetic way. And, of course, like Mills, Lohan went on to star in several more Disney features: "Freaky Friday," "Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen," and "Herbie: Fully Loaded."

As the parents, the original movie's Brian Keith and Maureen O'Hara are replaced by Dennis Quaid and Natasha Richardson. Both newer actors are beautiful people and charming in their roles. I actually like Quaid in these lighter parts more than in the heroic ones he's played, but he's a charismatic fellow in anything. Ms. Richardson is also a delight, and it continues to surprise me that she's not in more and bigger pictures.

There is a brief back story this time during the opening titles showing us how the parents meet aboard a cruise ship and fall immediately in love, immediately marry, and almost as immediately divorce. What happens next is more fairy-tale than anything else. The father, Nick Parker, takes Hallie to live with him at his vineyard estate in Northern California's Napa Valley. The Staglin Family Vineyard fills in for the father's spread, and considering that land values in the Napa Valley are, like, $1,000,000 a square inch, the place is obviously worth a fortune. So he's prosperous, to say the least. Meanwhile, the mother takes Annie back to London with her, where she works as a world-famous designer of wedding dresses. She, too, is so prosperous she lives in one of the most posh areas of the city, complete with Bentley and butler. Only in the movies.

Eleven years later, both twins are simultaneously shipped off to a summer camp in the Eastern United States where they meet up for the first time and figure out they have a sister they never knew existed. Then they conspire to meet the parent they've never met by switching places when they return home, as well as try to get the parents back together. Coincidentally, after eleven years neither of these aforementioned gorgeous parents has remarried. Only in the movies.

But there's a big snag to the twin's plans. There's got to be a snag or we wouldn't have a picture. The father has a fiancée, a wicked step-mother-to-be--a shallow, mean-spirited, but very attractive (and very young) publicist named Meredith Blake (Elaine Hendrix). Getting her out of the way is the first major obstacle in the twins' plot to reconfigure their family life.

As an added tribute to the older film, which also included the evil fiancée, Meredith's mother in the new picture is played by the same actress, Joanna Barnes, who played the evil fiancée in the old picture. It's a small part, but it's obviously perfect casting.

Also in the new film is a minor subplot involving the mother's butler, Martin (Simon Kunz), and the father's housekeeper, Chessy (Lisa Ann Walter). It's cute but goes almost nowhere. The person who gets rather shortchanged in the new version is the grandfather, the mother's father (Ronnie Stevens). In the original he was played by Charles Ruggles, and he had what seemed like a lot more screen time.

Anyway, the 1998 movie is a sweet new version of the story, despite its still being a tad overlong and opening with a sequence that almost had me heading for the door. The summer camp escapades involve a series of pranks and practical jokes that are so far-fetched, so ridiculous, so impossible, that they set a tone that makes one think the whole picture might be the same. But it's not. Once the twins discover their true identity, the film becomes a real crowd-pleaser. I don't mind saying there were more than a few teary-eyed moments for me; and, yes, I mostly fell in love with the characters all over again.

Even if you've seen and enjoyed the original "Parent Trap," this 1998 update should make you happy all over again. It's part of that "pairs" business I mentioned earlier.

Video:
The colors are quite good in this anamorphic widescreen transfer that preserves most of the film's 1.85:1 theatrical-release aspect ratio. Facial tones can be a trifle dark at times, but mostly the hues are natural and bright, appropriate to a lighthearted, family picture. There is some small degree of grain, however, and while detail is fine, it is sometimes a bit soft, too. Object delineation is average for a DVD transfer, and a few moiré effects show up on occasion.

Audio:
The Dolby Digital 5.1 sound is as ordinary as the picture. There is nothing obviously wrong with it, though, and it serves its purpose well. It just isn't spectacular in any way, nor should it be. The front-channel stereo spread is generous; the frequency and dynamic ranges are modest; and there is only a touch of rear-channel musical ambiance enhancement directed toward the surrounds. Voices are almost always firmly anchored in the center channel.

Extras:
This Special "Double Trouble" Edition includes a short but rewarding group of bonus items. The first is an audio commentary worth listening to by director/screenwriter Nancy Meyers, producer/screenwriter Charles Shyer, and director of photography Dean Cundey. It's Mr. Cundey who is the most famous of this trio, his work including such classics as "Who Framed Roger Rabbit," "Back to the Future," "Jurassic Park," and "Apollo 13"; yet it is he who is conspicuously absent from the keep-case announcement of special features. I assure you he's on the commentary and contributes to what is an above-average and unusually serious look at a film that might easily have been fluffed over by its filmmakers.

Next is a new, eighteen-minute featurette, "Updating a Classic," mostly a promotional on the making of "The Parent Trap" but still fairly interesting. That is followed by a second featurette, four minutes long, called "Accent on Fun," which gives us a glimpse of the dialect coaching in the film. Then there is an eight-minute featurette, "How Hallie Became Annie," that shows us the special effects that went into the creation of the double images; followed by a two-minute deleted scene, "Meeting the Queen," with optional commentary. The extras conclude with a typically measly number of scene selections from Disney--fourteen; plus English and French spoken languages; and French subtitles, with English captions for the hearing impaired.

Parting Thoughts:
OK, now I ask you: How does a girl raised all her life in downtown London learn to ride a horse so well? Riding to hounds, presumably? It's one of the many questions you don't want to ask while watching "The Parent Trap." The new movie, like its forerunner, is a preposterous and hopelessly sentimental romantic adventure that must be taken with several grains of salt. Of course, it's not the way things are; it's the way we'd like them to be, with more "Happily ever afters" than you can shake a twin at. I liked the movie a lot.