HOPELESS romantics should be well pleased with Pearl's movie choice this weekend. The station is showing the comedy/romance Father of the Bride - twice.
Tonight, it's the 1991 remake (Pearl 9.30pm, Original Running Time 101 mins) starring Steve Martin and Diane Keaton and tomorrow just after midnight, the real treat - the 1950 original with Spencer Tracy and Liz Taylor at her most beautiful.
The story's the same: Daddy's only daughter suddenly announces that she's engaged to be married, and while everyone else eagerly starts planning the wedding, doting Daddy is cut up that his little girl's all grown up - not to mention flabbergasted at theexpense of it all.
Spencer Tracy was faultless in the original, perfectly balancing the sentiment with the bleaker undercurrents of a middle-aged man overcome with jealousy and fears about getting old.
Steve Martin, too, is his usual entertaining self, but he is hindered by an unnaturally wholesome script. What worked well in 1950, is frequently too saccharine for the 1990s.
Newcomer Kimberley Williams makes a notable debut in the Liz Taylor role of the daughter, but Diane Keaton as the mother (Joan Bennett in the original) is badly miscast. Still, Martin is always worth watching and here he gets the best lines and delivers them well - just don't expect any surprises.
A word of warning about tomorrow's movie: this is the computer colourised version, so turn down the colour tone on the TV.
