Parent Trap, The Review

In 1961 Hayley Mills starred in The Parent Trap, playing twins separated at birth who meet by accident and decide to swap places and bring divorced parents Brian Keith and Maureen O`Hara back together. It was a pleasant though rather overlong children`s film which the folks at Disney have now dusted off for a remake. The plot in Nancy Meyers` new film faithfully follows the original: Hallie, Lindsay Lohan, is the slightly tomboyish daughter of Californa wine grower Nick Parker, Dennis Quaid. Annie is the perfectly mannered daughter of uppercrust English dress designer Elizabeth James, Natasha Richardson. When the two meet at summer camp and discover they`re really twins they hatch a plan to swap identities, forcing their divorced parents to contact each other when the swap is discovered which, in turn will lead them back into each other`s arms. The switch is successful at first but matters become complicated when Nick announces his intention to marry the gold digging Meredith, Elaine Hendrix...Apart from a few mildly adult jokes for today`s youth market, The Parent Trap supplies the same innocent entertainment it did in 1961. Newcomer Lindsay Lohan is impressive playing the dual roles of Hallie and Annie and the adult performers wisely do what`s required of them without attempting to upstage the young star. There are some well executed double trouble scenes such as the family reunion in a fancy L.A. Hotel but, at 2 hours and ten minutes, it`s rather overlong for such thin material and the kids might find it something of a stretch.