Father of the Bride (1991)

Steve Martin’s George Banks opens the film with a deep and touching soliloquy that would allow most any parent to empathize with the difficulties of parenthood (especially when it comes to watching their children grow up). However, it was not enough to balance the incessant ridiculousness that took place over the next hour and a half. The plot of the film reads as follows: “With his oldest daughter's wedding approaching, a father finds himself reluctant to let go,” and, yet, this is just simply not the reality of the film. From the beginning, George Banks is subjected to some of the most asinine ideas in the history of wedding planning. From premature engagements to inexplicably expensive meals, Banks is run through the gamut of stressful situations regarding his daughter and her quickly approaching wedding. While the first few minutes of the film appeal to those who have raised a child in any capacity, the next eighty-five are there to irritate anyone who has ever played a part in planning a wedding. The way in which the film was written, it appears that the writers, and director, Charles Shyer, had the intention of the audience siding with George’s wife and daughter (Diane Keaton’s Nina Banks and Kimberly Williams-Paisley’s Annie Banks) rather than the sane characters in the film. Nina and Annie’s constant nit-picking made it difficult to care for them in any capacity. By about the hour mark, it seemed that things were beginning to turn and that the characters were starting to make more sense. This, again, was just not the case. Even at the end of the film, after everything he had been put through, George is denied a dance with his daughter. He expresses the fact that at this point there is nothing more he wants in the world than to have a father-daughter dance at her wedding (the wedding on which he spent upwards of one-hundred thousand dollars). The entire film felt like a way to irritate each and every nerve in the human body and less like a form of entertainment. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0101862/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1