The Parent Trap

Directed by Nancy Meyers, The Parent Trap follows twin sisters (Lindsay Lohan’s Annie and Hallie) as they meet at summer camp and subsequently conspire to get their parents (Dennis Quaid’s Nick and Natasha Richardson’s Liz) back together. Filmmaker Meyers, armed with a script written alongside David Swift and Charles Shyer, delivers an undeniably overlong yet predominantly delightful comedy that benefits from the top-tier efforts of its various players, with Lohan’s engaging (and impressively convincing) turn as the picture’s two protagonists certainly matched by the endlessly agreeable and charming work of both Quaid and Richardson. (And this is to say nothing of the uniformly compelling performances by a first-class supporting cast that includes Elaine Hendrix, Lisa Ann Walter, and Simon Kunz.) The pervasively affable atmosphere goes a long way towards compensating for a shaggy narrative that rarely feels as streamlined as one might’ve preferred (eg there’s a late-in-the-game camping trip that’s perhaps not quite as engrossing as intended), and yet it’s equally clear that the picture, which boasts its fair share of compelling, hilarious sequences (eg Nick’s first encounter with Liz), builds towards a tremendously satisfying (and affecting) closing stretch that ensures it concludes on a thoroughly appealing note – with the end result a top-notch piece of work that holds up superbly all these years later.

***1/2 out of ****