Taglines: Love is wonderful. Until it happens to your only daughter.
Father of the Bride movie storyline. George Banks (Steve Martin) is the owner of a successful athletic shoe company called Side Kicks in San Marino, California. His 22-year-old daughter, Annie (Kimberly Williams) who just graduated from college, returns home from Europe, announcing that she is engaged to Bryan MacKenzie (George Newbern), a man from an upper-class family from Bel-Air, 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 likeable demeanour, George takes an immediate dislike to him while his wife, Nina (Diane Keaton), 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. Though George feels comfort from John also expressing how shocked he had initially been at Bryan’s engagement, he quickly gets into trouble when he begins nosing around and eventually ends up falling into the pool when cornered by the MacKenzies’ vicious pet Dobermans. All is forgiven, however, and the Banks meet with an eccentric European wedding coordinator, Franck Eggelhoffer (Martin Short) and his assistant, Howard Weinstein (B. D. Wong), where George immediately begins complaining about the price of the extravagant wedding items.
The high price, $250 a head, plus the problems of wedding invitations begin to take their toll on George and he becomes slightly insane. The last straw occurs when his wrongly sized suit, which he had struggled to put on, rips when he bends his back. He leaves the house to cool off, but ends up causing a disturbance at the supermarket. Fed up with paying for things he doesn’t want, he starts removing hot dog buns from their 12-bun packets so as to match the 8-dog packets of hot dogs. He ends up getting arrested, but Nina arrives to bail him out on the condition that he stop ruining the wedding.
With help from Nina and Franck, George becomes more relaxed and accepting of the wedding, particularly when Annie and Bryan receive rather expensive gifts from extended family members, but the wedding plans are put on hold when they have a row over a blender he gave her as a gift, which only gets worse when she refuses to believe his story about George’s antics at his parents’ house when he fell in the pool. George takes Bryan out for a drink, initially intending to get rid of him for good, but seeing his heartbroken face and genuine claim that he loves Annie, George has a change of heart and finally accepts him. He confesses to Annie that what happened at the MacKenzies’ house was true, and she and Bryan reconcile.
Father of the Bride is a 1991 American comedy film starring Steve Martin, Diane Keaton, Kimberly Williams (in her film debut), George Newbern, Martin Short, B. D. Wong, and Kieran Culkin. It is a remake of the 1950 film of the same name.
The film inspired a series of Hallmark commercials that featured the smiling faces of the happy couple and sneak-peeks at the backs of numerous greeting cards. It is number 92 on Bravo’s “100 Funniest Movies”.
Steve Martin portrays George Banks, a businessman and owner of an athletic shoe company (called Side Kicks), who, when he finds out his daughter is getting married, does not want to give her away. He eventually learns to live with his new son-in-law and realizes that as long as his daughter is happy, he is happy.
Father of the Bride (1991)
Directed by: Charles Shyer
Starring: Steve Martin, Diane Keaton, Martin Short, Kieran Culkin, Kimberly Williams-Paisley, George Newbern, Peter Michael Goetz, Kate McGregor-Stewart, April Ortiz
Screenplay by: Charles Shyer, Nancy Meyers, Frances Goodrich, Albert Hackett
Production Design by: Sandy Veneziano
Cinematography by: John Lindley
Film Editing by: Richard Marks
Costume Design by: Susan Becker
Set Decoration by: Cynthia McCormac
Art Direction by: Erin M. Cummins
Music by: Alan Silvestri
Distributed by: Buena Vista Pictures
Release Date: December 20, 1991
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