“This one’s tough for me to watch nowadays. My parents got me this movie when I was rather wee. IMDB says the film was done in 1991, so that means I’d have been about six or seven when I first started watching it. It was one that the three of us would watch together. And I watched it over and over without them. \m/ even now, Im tearing up just thinking of where my story is going.
Im not the girliest of girls. I do very much want to get married one day, but I dont want the fuss of a huge wedding. I feel like that’s something I picked up from this film. There is the fun aspect of it, but ultimately it’s taught me that I want something on the smaller side. But what always got me most about the movie was the relationship between the father, George, played by Steve Martin, and the daughter Annie, played by Kimberly Williams. She is very much a daddy’s girl, just like me, and even as a six year old watching the film, it’d choke me up whenever they’d talk about her growing up and leaving. I knew that whenever my fairy tale enough for me wedding happens, my dad was gonna be just like George. Im not the kind of girl that’s planned out every detail without even having met the boy yet (see above comment, not the girliest girl). The one thing I had planned was that my daddy was gonna give me away, and I even knew what song we were gonna dance to at the reception (I Think About You by Collin Raye). But he passed away last year, which is why this movie is so hard for me to get thru.
An idea that I’ve toyed with, is that when the day comes, I wanna write to Steve Martin and see if he’d step in for my daddy. I know, it’d be a long shot that I’d ever hear from him, and God only knows when all this is gonna go down anyways. But I really do see so much of my daddy in him and his character in the film. Right now, we’re at my favorite scene, which is them playing one on one (silly YouTube doesnt have the clip) before the boy shows up to meet the parents. I remember countless basketball games with my dad in my grandparents’ driveway. And the way that George always envisions Annie as five years old is another thing I know that he did too. I can already picture him silently judging whatever boy I would bring home, wanting to lay down the law, but at the same time wanting me to be happy.
Okay, gonna try and move on to happier topics. This is yet another example of a fantastic family movie from the early 90’s–the kind you dont see anymore. Sure, Hollywood attempts to work some similar magic, but I really feel that golden age of cinema is long gone (and due for a repeat appearance).
Oh, the second detail of my future wedding that I know is that I fully intend to wear white Chucks, which is something else that this movie taught me is okay.
I’ve gone on about how sincere and heartfelt Steve Martin’s performance is, but the rest of the cast is fantastic as well. Diane Keaton is just classically elegant as the mother of the bride. This was also one of the first film appearances by the next Culkin brother, Kieran Culkin. However, the one who steals the show in every scene he’s in is Martin Short as Franck. There are no words to describe his performance, so I offer you a clip of a sample scene. I just upgraded my VHS to a DVD, and by habit I always watch with subtitles. I _LOVE_ that they subtitle Franck with his geographically questionable accent.
I just know that this movie is gonna stick with me for the rest of my life.”