Revisiting Nostalgia
The Parent Trap
For whatever reason The Parent Trap with Lindsey Lohan has made its circulation on TikTok. Not really sure why this gem of a movie has resurfaced but as it was one of my most watched movies in my childhood I thought I would throw my two cents in.
First of all someone on TikTok said that this is really 3 movies in one and that is because the three acts of this movie are very clearly separated. So let's start with Act 1.
Act 1 is the girls meeting and bonding at summer camp. I love Annie and Martin’s handshake, it's really cute. The fact that there is 1 little boy dropped off at the girls camp is hilarious. And I love the idea that both Annie and Hallie are so charismatic that they both immediately have a posse. Their prank wars are wildly unrealistic but highly entertaining, and there were clearly not enough adults staffing this camp. All that said, the only part I noticed that didn’t register as a child but definitely raises questions as an adult is how long it took them to piece together that they were sisters. It took finding out that they have the same birthday and a full conversation about their parents in order to figure it out. You would really think their identical twinness would be enough.
Act 2 begins with the switch and the girls head home. Now if you’ve followed me for any amount of time you know that I really really hate when parents make major, life-changing decisions without consulting their kids. You don’t get to have a “soulmate” or “love of your life” without the approval of your children. You can’t possibly love someone that your kids hate, and if you try, you suck as a parent and as a person. No good person or parent forces anyone into their child’s life. Also marrying someone you’ve only known for 8 weeks who is old enough to be your daughter's sister is all kinds of gross and wrong. And so many people have pointed this out but the idea that the adults in this situation decided that splitting up their daughters and never seeing one of them again was a good decision is so jacked up. Like Nick and Elizabeth are actually terrible. Hallie’s freaking nanny was the first one to notice that she wasn’t herself. Talk about bad parenting. I will at least appreciate that when the girls came clean about the switch that Nick and Elizabeth weren’t angry with them. Like they don’t blame the girls for trying to correct their shitty parenting decisions. And nothing is funnier than Hallie and Annie literally strongarming their parents into letting them stay together longer. My main problem with this resurgence is that people are saying that Meredith wasn’t the villain when she absolutely was. She was a gold digging whore who wanted to ship the girls off to boarding school. The only good dad thing Nick Parker did this whole movie was basically tell Meredith to fuck off cause he would always choose his daughter.
Act 3 is Nick and Elizabeth falling back in love. And here lies the other major problem with this plot. These two hated each other so much that they split their daughters up but somehow they fall back in love…but before they do they split the girls up AGAIN. Wild fucking behavior. I mean Nick and Hallie followed them but still, these adults need to get it the fuck together.
Besides this plot being absolutely buckwild, Lindsey Lohan was adorable and incredible and it remains a very solid, and adorable film. Watching it as an adult is definitely a different experience but it was still fun.
About the Creator
Alexandrea Callaghan
Certified nerd, super geek and very proud fangirl.
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