Father of the bride, written- with four others - and directed by Charles Shyer - 8 out of 10

Father of the bride, written- with four others - and directed by Charles Shyer
8 out of 10


Steve Martin, Diane Keaton give solid performances in this motion picture, but it is Martin Short who steals the show, with an over the top rendition of Franck Eggelhoffer, a flamboyant, excessive and amusing wedding planner and coordinator.

When George Banks hears his daughter is getting married, he can't believe his hears - it is true she is very young, in an age when people postpone matrimony and having children, at least in most of the West - and he is more than aggravated.
Humor is already presented in the first few scenes, as the would be Father of the Bride prefers to shut himself from the incoming information...

His daughter, Annie Banks, explains how she has met Bryan MacKenzie while in Italy and they have had such a great time, since the young man is marvelous...
She keeps giving more details, but the frightened parent is not processing most, if any of it...

Well into the Italian story, the Father of the Bride asks:

Who is Bryan?

Then he concocts a version of events where the man is forty five and his position as an independent contractor, fixing computer systems for companies, is translated as being unemployed.
He will remain more than skeptical, prognosticating a short period of bliss, after which the two would separate.

Consequently, for a very brief period, Annie would maintain that the wedding is off, for a very pertinent reason she claims:
Bryan has just given her a present for their anniversary- they have been together for such a brief period though- and she thinks the blender has a sinister significance, because it represents how her would be husband sees her position:

She would become a housewife, always in the kitchen or cleaning the house...

Nina Banks aka legendary Diane Keaton and her husband drive to meet their would be in laws - an expression that is jocularly interpreted by the funny George - in Bel Air, where he is first sure that the MacKenzies must have a shack between these superb mansions and then he is upset that they have the biggest manor of them all.
The dobermans of the hosts are not happy with the Father of the Bride...dogs tend to guess, feel hostility and nefarious intentions.

Steve Martin is at his best when he uses the bathroom- seventh door to the left or maybe right,upstairs- and smashes one mirror, while looking for incriminating clues and then moves on to the office of his in law.
While prying there, on the desk of the host, he finds a check book, but the maid is near, at the door, and he has to hide under the furniture...
Facing him there, showing all his teeth and the evident displeasure is one of the dobermans, ready to pounce, mince, dismember the intruder.

Who looks at the window behind,  quite far from the ground and then the director moves to the next shot, with Nina and the MacKenzies talking downstairs and the lower part of the Father of the Bride hanging over the downstairs windows.
Once on the ground, he tries to throw the checkbook back upstairs, but it bounces into the swimming pool, where the agitated guest tries hard to recuperate it, in vain, I guess needless to say.

For there is not just one, but both dobermans are now plunging for their prey, who is thus thrown into the pool.
The next rather hilarious episode is mostly the work of Martin Short, who has to use his expertise so that the wedding is a success, even if Georgehas to be convinced to spend more than he wants to...his dream was to take a few people to the grill joint he has used for fifteen years and when he learns this is atrocious, he envisages the same small crowd, which eats barbecue that he grills in the garden.

Alas, this must not be, for the ceremony will include swans - which will have to swim in the bathroom, because it would snow - work on the house and garden, a fifteen hundred dollars cake, a chef that doesn't speak English, but he is a genius.
Not that The Father of the Bride understands much, if anything the Master of Ceremonies says, which adds a special note to this entertaining comedy.