Remember when we were #blessed with double the mini Lindsay Lohan in the 1998 film The Parent Trap!?
In this iconic update from the 1961 original, Annie and Hallie (both played by Lindsay Lohan) cross paths at summer camp and soon realise they’re actually twin sisters who have never met. Turns out their parents, Nick (played by a very handsome Dennis Quaid) and Elizabeth (played by the late Natasha Richardson) divorced and moved to opposite sides of the globe, each taking one child with them.
American-raised Hallie and British-raised Annie swap identities in an attempt to spend more time with the parent they’ve missed and bring their family back together.
It’s a heartwarming tale that – spoiler alert – ends with Annie and Hallie’s parents remarrying and everyone living happily ever after.
First of all, what kind of unethical divorce lawyer or family counsellor thinks it’s okay to split up a pair of twins and let them live on opposite sides of the world!? No matter how messy a breakup is, separating sisters this way seems pretty cruel.
Secondly, Annie and Hallie’s parents are wealthy, to say the least. Nick owns a vineyard in Napa and Elizabeth is a wedding dress designer – surely these two could afford to visit the twin they don’t live with?
Another disturbing storyline in The Parent Trap is Annie and Hallie’s batsh*t crazy plan to meet their other parent. Not only is it insanely dangerous and super irresponsible, but they don’t ever consider what would happen if Nick or Elizabeth were to freak out and keep them in custody, without ever releasing them back to the parent they’ve been living with.
Annie and Hallie have no idea why their parents broke up or how complicated the situation really is, so to take on the role of unofficial matchmakers, they’re assuming they’ll be able to wave a magic wand and play happy families once again.
In reality, relationships and custody agreements are far more complicated than they appear in The Parent Trap. I might be overthinking it, but it’s probably not setting the best example for children of divorced parents!
That’s where the reminder: it’s just a movie, comes in handy once again.