We all know that we should avoid Grandpa Joe but have you heard about the bridal nightmare that is fictional character, Annie Banks?
Annie is played by Kimberly Williams-Paisley in the modernization of the Father of the Bride, a comedy. Martin Short as Franck is hilarious. Diane Keaton is funny and charming. Steve Martin plays the nervous father well and certainly gets a few laughs. However, the one thing that doesn’t come across as funny is Annie Banks. The 22 year old bride-to-be is just a little off. She comes across as cute but also self-entitled, manipulative, and annoying.
For most of the movie Annie is unappreciative of what her parents are doing for her. I get that she needs to be a little naive and overzealous for Steve Martin to go insane but she could have at least been a little funny.
Steve Martin still sees her as a young child in pigtails but then again Annie ACTS like a seven year old in pigtails. She lives in some sort of dream world where life is pretty much perfect. Annie only thinks of herself. She dismisses her fathers advice to wear a jacket but immediately listens to her fiance when he tells her to do the same. However, she does at least acknowledge that the wedding shouldn’t be that big because neither of them know that many people.
That statement lasts a whole two seconds and then Annie transforms into the bride-to-be from hell. For some reason, this All-American girl who seems to have simple tastes wants to hire a wedding planner. Enter Franck, he’s funny, not too overbearing and pretty much lets Annie make the decisions that she wants to make. The first is to get a cake that costs $1200 which she pretty much begs her father to get. Soon, the “small” wedding has spiraled into a 572 person affair that costs two hundred and fifty dollars a head.
Annie thinks that this is perfectly reasonable and can’t possibly be bothered to cut anyone from the guest list. She can’t even give up the LIVE SWANS in the driveway. This causes her dad to start scoffing at every expense which is reasonable when the wedding is costing is costing over one hundred grand. Yet, when her dad tells her to cut costs she plants herself on the family couch and falls asleep reading a magazine about planning a wedding on a budget. She even has the nerve to tell him they should charge for people to come to the wedding since he is being such a miser. Sure, cutting down the costs from $250/person is putting you on a budget but you aren’t on the same type of budget the magazine is talking about. Cutting even $50/person out of the cost is reasonable if you aren’t cutting the guest list.
Annie grows gradually more annoying as the wedding approaches. This is understandable but my goodness is she annoying. Her fiance’s parents give them a car. She can’t believe it! It’s the best present she’s ever gotten. Well, that’s what she told her dad, the man who is spending enough money to buy her eight cars on the one day party she is calling a wedding. On top of that, she then calls off the expensive wedding because her fiance got her a blender. She thinks he is saying her place is in the kitchen when he is just getting her something to make her favorite fruit smoothies. UGH. Annie doesn’t even come across as someone that is career oriented. She just gallivants around spending her parents money.
Sure, a bride is supposed to have free reign over her wedding, but in the end you might find yourself wishing that Franck had just been some scam artist and run away with all the money. However, the wedding goes on as planned and Annie’s dad is all but ignored. No one even goes out of their way to find him to give him a dance with the bride! Sure he was moving cars out of the street but shouldn’t Franck have dealt with that for all they were paying him? Annie even leaves without saying goodbye to her dad. Yet, she does call at the airport but even then she doesn’t thank him for the wedding but ,then again, what can you expect from such an awful person.
