Father Of the Bride (2022)
Who hasn’t seen the Father of the Bride movies? Spencer Tracy and Steve Martin both played loving, nervous Stanley Banks, who has to come to terms with his daughter’s impending marriage while shelling out mondo amounts of cash to pay for the wedding. That’s the story in a nutshell, and if anyone is coming into this not having seen the original 1950 film and its 1991 remake, both of which I highly recommend, I am most heartily sorry for all the spoilers.
Now, let’s talk about the newest iteration of Father of the Bride, which has just recently started streaming on HBO Max. Starring Andy Garcia as Billy Herrera, Gloria Estefan as his wife Ingrid, Adria Arjona as older daughter Sophie, and Isabela Merced as younger daughter Cora, the film mostly sticks to the familiar plotline while working in a few new slants here and there.
And just in case anyone’s wondering, we don’t get to hear Gloria Estefan sing, although she does hit the dance floor several times.
Billy is a prosperous Cuban American architect in Miami and he built his business, not to mention his house, from the ground up. He and his wife, Ingrid, were very young when they got married and had their ceremony and reception in a bingo parlor, with Billy’s Tio Walter’s band, Los Inmortales rocking the house.
Now Billy and Ingrid are on the brink of divorce, and they’re all set to tell their family about it when Sophie drops her own bomb:
She’s getting married. Gasp.
To a charming Mexican vegetarian, Adan Castillo. Double gasp.
They want to get married in a month because Sophia has taken a job in Mexico. Jaw, meet floor.
Oh, and Sophie proposed. Grab the smelling salts. Or popcorn, like Cora does.
Adan’s family arrives in Miami a few days later, led by Adan’s dad, Hernan, his young wife, Julieta and ex-wife, Marcela. To say Hernan is well-off is putting it mildly. He owns a ninety-foot yacht and has just bought a palatial island estate he jokingly calls a pied-a-terre without batting an eye. The women bond just fine, but Hernan and Billy drive each other crazy.
Speaking of crazy, the single most annoying character in this movie is Chloe, Sophie and Adan’s wedding planner, who arrives with her assistant, Kyler in tow. Her phone is her office and vice versa. She’s ultra-PC and bandies around phrases like, “Latinx,” much to the family’s chagrin (Thank you, thank you, thank you, Bride. I’m not Hispanic, but “Latinx” seems insulting.).
Chloe is not irredeemable, though—she gets points for trying hard and rolling with the punches.
The wedding planner isn’t the only one who has to be adaptable, because this movie is very crowded. Not that there’s anything wrong with big families, but there are a lot of characters to keep track of, which is a little overwhelming though delightful. The acting is peppery and colorful, just like Miami.
Now, the film is by no means perfect. I wish the relationship between Sophie and Billy had been developed a little more, because the big thing about Streeter’s original story is that the bride is Daddy’s girl, and it doesn’t really happen because there are too many people around. The chemistry between Ingrid and Billy seems a little stilted, but then again, it’s supposed to be because these characters are just above estranged. This was another element that could have been developed a teeny bit more so we could see glimpses of the passion Ingrid and Billy had for each other.
What we definitely don’t see are many overt nods to Bride’s predecessors. Billy doesn’t try to squeeze himself into his old tux, although Ingrid tries on her wedding dress, which still fits, thank you very much. There’s a severe absence of cold feet, but Miami weather might get in the way a bit. The one exception is Billy echoing Spencer Tracy’s words at the end of the 1950 film: “A son’s a son until he gets him a wife, but a daughter’s a daughter for the rest of her life.”
I like that this movie took the Father of the Bride canon a few steps further and made it about blending two cultures and reconciling some difficult relationship issues. It’s not as funny or ironic as its predecessors, but there are a lot of sweet moments and I was left smiling.
Father of the Bride is currently streaming on HBO Max. Rated PG-13.
My grade: A-
Principal Cast: Andy Garcia, Gloria Estefan, Adria Arjona, Isabela Merced, Natalie Fineman, Diego Boneta, Casey Thomas Brown, Pedro Damian, Laura Harring, Macarena Achaga
Directed by Gaz Alazraki
Writers: Matt Lopez (screenplay) and Edward Streeter (novel)