Essay on the Parent Trap: A Classic Romantic Comedy-Drama About Growing Up

Growing up, I enjoyed watching movies. I have watched countless movies that got me intrigued to date. One example of the interesting movies I watched is called The Parent Trap. The movie, directed by Nancy Meyers and produced by Charles Shyer is a romantic-comedy-drama film, which was released in 1961. A newer version of the movie was later released in 1998.

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At the beginning of the movie, we are introduced to Nicholas Parker (played by David Quaid), an American winemaker and Elizabeth James (played by Natasha Richardson), a wealthy British wedding gown designer. Nicholas and Elizabeth met, fell in love, and got married. Later, they gave birth to identical twin daughters Annie and Hallie (played by Linsey Lohan). The twins are played by the same actress, Linsey Lohan. After the birth of their twins, Nicholas and Elizabeth go their separate ways and each parent has sole custody of one girl. Nicholas raises Hailie in Napa Valley, California and Elizabeth raise Annie in London, England. Annie has never met her father while Hallie has never met her mother.

The twins live separately without knowing the existence of each other. That happened until eleven years nine months later when Nicholas and Elizabeth decide to send each girl on an all-girls summer camp called Camp Walden in Maine. The twins first meet each other at the end of a fencing match when they remove their masks and discover that they are identical. In the camp, they are mischievous as they hatch a lot of pranks, which make them be isolated in a cabin from the rest of the camp members and they remain just the two of them. The scenes where the twins prank each other is comical. One of the pranks Hallie pulled on Annie was making her jump in the lake naked. During the isolation, it is clear that the twins dislike each other. Nevertheless, after a while, Annie and Hallie realize that they are twins. They realize that they were born on the same day. Besides that, the twins realize that each of them has a torn photograph of their parents wedding picture. With this realization, they come up with a plan to meet the parent they have never met. Both Annie and Hallie train themselves to impersonate each other so that at the end of the camp, they switch places and meet the other parent who they have not met before.

When the summer camp is over, the twins put their plan into action. This was the most interesting part of the movie. Hallie went to London and pretended to be Annie while Annie went to California and pretended to be Hallie. In London, Hallie met her mother, maternal grandfather Charles, and the Family Butler Martin. On the other hand, in California, Annie met her father, Chessy the family housekeeper, their dog Sammy, and Nicholas's fiance Meredith. I was glued to the television to see whether both parents would identify their daughter as the other twin but luckily, that failed to happen. In the movie, Meredith is portrayed as opportunistic and only interested in Nicholas's money. When Annie notices this, she calls Annie in London to hatch a plot to make Elizabeth fly to California and break up their engagement. The plot of the movie thickens when Charles catches Hallie on the phone talking to Annie and in California, Chessy realizes that the twin who came back is Annie and not Hallie.

As the movie continues, everyone knows about the switch apart from Nicholas and Meredith. The twins organize for their parents to meet. Charles, Martin, Chessy, and the twins organize the meet between Nicholas and Elizabeth. The parents finally meet and Nick got to know about the switch. The twins together with Martin and Charles organize a dinner for Nicholas and Elizabeth in a yacht where they talked about their life after the separation. Even though they are skeptical about getting back together, Nicholas and Elizabeth organize for the girls to spend the holiday together and catch up on lost times.

Since Hallie and Annie wanted to see their parents reunite, they were sad that they had no plans of getting back together. Due to that, the twins made their parents to take them to an annual camping trip before they resume school. However, Elizabeth is still hesitant to reunite with Nicholas. She asks Meredith to go to the camp with the girls and Nickolas while she stays behind. Nevertheless, during the camp, the twins play various pranks on Meredith. The pranks make Meredith angry to an extent she tells Nicholas to choose between her and the girls. Surprisingly, Nicholas chooses the girls and the two finally break up. Elizabeth returns to London with Annie and when they reach there, they find Nicholas and Hallie waiting for them there. Nicholas tells Elizabeth that he did what he should have done the first time they separated, which was to chase after her. The movie ends when Nicholas and Elizabeth re-marry with their girls as bridesmaids.

Conclusion

The film The Parent Trap might be over a decade old but it is still one of the most interesting movies because of its great sense of humor. The movie made me wish to have a secret twin whom I would meet later on in life. I have re-watched the movie various time and would recommend anyone who is looking for an interesting movie to try The Parent Trap.