“Can I hug her?”

Justin’s rating: My twin has never wanted to switch with me, being the Prince of Denmark and all

Justin’s review: It’s strange to consider that the formative movies when you were a kid aren’t the same ones that younger (and older) people have. For example, when I grew up, I saw the original 1961 Parent Trap quite often thanks to the Wonderful World of Disney. Yet for Gen Z and Millennials, it’s the 1998 Lindsay Lohan version that is most often remembered and referenced. Me? I’d never seen it before today. That’s just how all of our movie journeys differ.

Eleven years (and nine months) after Nick (Dennis Quaid) and Elizabeth (Natasha Richardson) get married, their separated twin girls somehow end up at the same summer camp for girls. Hallie (Lohan) is the genial California girl, while Annie (also Lohan) is oh-so-posh and British.

There’s some initial rivalry between the two, but that’s nothing that an extended stay at the Isolation Cabin can’t fix. Realizing that they’re sisters who’ve been kept from each other for their whole lives, Annie and Hallie hatch a plant to swap lives, get to know their other parent, and maybe rekindle a long-dormant romance while fending off a gold digger.

All of these story beats are very similar — dare I say, identical? — to the 1961 movie, just with a late ’90s overlay, more slapstick, and Lohan’s considerable talents as a child actor at play. Yeah, it’s kind of odd that once again, a movie about twins didn’t actually bother to cast twins, but then, how many tween twins are there who can headline a Disney film like this?

And to her credit, Lohan does a believable job playing two very different people (one of whom sports a pretty thick accent). The Parent Trap was her big breakout role, kicking off a great run of movies through 2005 until she started to flame out. Considering that she also has to play both of these characters pretending to be each other’s twin, I think Lohan deserves whatever praise comes her way for this.

I also do not mind an in-his-middle-aged-prime Dennis Quaid slipping almost effortlessly into a love triangle. This is a romcom, after all — just not a very conventional one.

Having seen the original movie so often (plus a recent rewatch), I kept having movie deja vu when I heard the exact same lines reused. But it’s not an exact copy. I’d say that the biggest difference here is a lot more pep, slapstick, and Alan Sylvestri going all out on the soundtrack. This is the sort of movie that when you see it, you immediately understand that it’s engineered to appeal to young girls.

The Parent Trap’s ace in the hole is a whole roster of familial discoveries and connections. You’ve got sisters discovering each other, a girl meeting her dad for the first time, another girl meeting her mom, then grandparents and other people who know them, and finally — the cherry on top — two past lovers rekindling a spark.

Absolutely nothing about it is subtle as it guns for those heartstrings, and dang it if it doesn’t twang mine pretty hard. When Chessy learns that it’s been Annie, not Hallie, who’s in the house and she breaks down while keeping Annie’s secret, it’s really hard to keep those eyes dry.

This may be one of the cheesiest movies that I’ve watched in a long time, but it’s not bad cheese. It’s classic Disney ’90s lighthearted comedy cheese, a comfort food for the bruised soul. The Parent Trap may be a good antidote when you’ve seen too many self-important, stodgy, soulless films as of late.

Intermission!

• Alan Sylvestri on the score!
• Where are these summer camps where all the campers arrive at the same time in buses? Every camp I’ve been to, the parents drive them separately in cars.
• Both of these girls love poker
• Annie and her butler Martin’s handshake/dance is really adorable
• Some chunky cell phones in this movie — and a chunky GameBoy… and chunky peanut butter
• Lots of summer camps have… fencing? Sure, why not!
• You know it’s a ’90s movie if “Bad to the Bone” plays when a character walks in with sunglasses
• Getting full beds to the cabin roof must’ve taken so much work
• That trumpet player is giving her all
• Isolation table
• The ear piercing
• The Abbey Road freeze frame
• The crossed fingers while she lies
• This movie is very good at hiding faces until the big reveal
• “Are you speaking French?”
• Hallie drinking wine
• “Liar, liar, pants on fire!”
• Martin’s leather ensemble
• Lohan singing that “Let’s get together yeah yeah yeah” song under her breath
• Martin taking a picture of the pool dip
• Lizard drink!
• Shoving a woman heavily dosed on sleeping meds out into the middle of a lake is a good way to murder her, just saying
• OK I liked that Martin and Chessy had their side romance going on