Father of the Bride 1991

George Banks (Steve Martin) is an upper-middle-class owner of an athletic shoe company (called Side Kicks) in San Marino, California, whose 22-year-old daughter, Annie (Kimberly Williams), returns from Europe (she was studying architecture for a semester in Rome), telling them she has decided to marry Bryan MacKenzie (George Newbern), a man from an upper-class family from Bel-Air, despite only knowing each other for three months.

Now for George, Annie is still a little girl who sat on his lap and saw him as a hero. He missed the parts where Annie grew up and started asking him to drop her off one block before the movie theater or wearing eye shadow and high heels. George went from worrying about Annie meeting the “wrong” guy to worrying about Annie meeting the “right” guy. That day was finally here.

Matty (Kieran Culkin) is George and Nina’s son. George doesn’t like change and loves San Marino as the town hasn’t changed too much in the last 25 years. He loves his house as it is warm in the winters and cool in the summers and his kids grew up there.

The sudden shock turns the warm reunion into a heated argument between George and Annie (George says that Annie is too young to get married, and further states that Annie wanted to be an independent woman). Annie says that Bryan is not an overpowering macho guy and compares him to George. Bryan is an independent communications consultant. George scoffs that “independent” is code for unemployed and that he would have to hire Bryan at his company, and fire some hard working person with 3 kids to accommodate his unemployed son-in-law.

Annie and George quickly reconcile in time for Bryan to arrive and meet them. Annie says that Bryan is a 26-year-old computer genius who is sent all over the world by banks and other companies to assess their IT networks.

Despite Brian’s good financial status, George takes an immediate dislike to him while his wife, Nina (Diane Keaton), accepts the young man as a potential son-in-law. George does not want to let go of his daughter and says that the relationship is unlikely to last.

2 days later, George and Nina meet Bryan’s parents, John (Peter Michael Goetz) and Joanna (Kate McGregor-Stewart). The in-laws live in a huge mansion in Bel Air, and it is obvious that the family is well to do.

Though George feels comfort from John also expressing how shocked he had initially been at Bryan’s marriage plans; George quickly gets into trouble when he begins nosing around and eventually ends up falling into the pool when cornered by the MacKenzie’s vicious pet Doberman.

George wanted to have the wedding at the stake pit, where the family had been dining for 15 years. Annie wanted a church wedding and a reception at home. George believes this is a great idea as it will help keep costs down (he plans to barbecue himself and serve guests on paper cutlery).

All is forgotten, however, and the Banks meet with an eccentric European wedding designer, Franck Eggelhoffer (Martin Short) and his assistant, Howard Weinstein (B.D. Wong), where George immediately begins complaining about the price of the extravagant wedding items.

Franck sneers dismissively at George’s complaints about the price of wedding items, and George becomes frustrated as Annie and Nina plan for extravagant items such as a flock of swans and alterations to the family home, where the reception is to be held.

The high price, $250 a head, plus the problems of wedding invitations and extensive remodeling of a room in the house begin to take their toll on George and he becomes slightly insane. The headcount for the wedding is 572. He wants to bring the count down to 150. Annie is disgusted with the bean counting and suggested that they charge people for attending the wedding so they can make money on it.

The final straw occurs when George’s small tuxedo, which he had struggled to put on, rips when he bends his back. George leaves the house to cool off but ends up causing a disturbance at a supermarket by removing hot dog buns from their packets for them to match packets of sausages. He ends up arrested, but Nina arrives to bail him out on the condition that he stop ruining Annie’s wedding.

With help from Nina and Franck, George becomes more relaxed and accepting of the wedding, particularly when Bryan and Annie receive rather expensive gifts from extended family members, but the wedding plans are put on hold when Bryan and Annie have a row over a blender Bryan gave to Annie as a gift (which Annie took to mean he expects her to be a compliant housewife), which only got worse when Annie refused to believe Bryan’s story about George’s antics at his house when he fell in the pool.

George takes Bryan out for a drink, initially intending to get rid of him for good, but seeing Bryan’s

heartbroken face and genuine claim that he loves Annie, George has a change of heart and finally accepts Bryan. He confesses to Annie that what happened at Bryan’s house was true, and Annie and Bryan reconcile.

A freak snowstorm arrives the night before the wedding, but Franck and George manage to pull everything together at the last minute. The wedding is finally prepared, almost one year after Bryan and Annie’s first meeting Annie marries Bryan wearing sneakers made by George’s company, and George walks his daughter down the aisle, finally accepting that she has grown up.

Bryan and Annie marry, and a party is held at the house, despite a nosy police officer objecting to the number of parked cars in their street. George, unfortunately, misses Annie throwing the bouquet and is unable to see his daughter before she and Bryan leave for their honeymoon. Annie, however, calls George from the airport to thank him one last time before they board the plane.

With the house now empty and the wedding finished, George finds solace with Nina, and dances with her. The wedding cost more than what is cost George to buy the house, which he bought when Annie was in grammar school.