When it comes to marketing, Warner Bros. hit the mark with their release of the remake of Father of the Bride on HBO Max over Father’s Day weekend. As a result, the movie has become HBO Max’s most viewed premiere for a streaming exclusive title ever. While early reviews for the movie were mostly positive, once again the comments of negative critics and early reviewer’s have been mostly dismissed by audiences who were happy to make their own mind up about the Andy Garcia-led second remake of the movie, which last saw Steve Martin taking the title role in the 1990s.
One of the biggest things about this remake of the movie was that it included a strong Latin representation, and this has paid off with the movie being a big hit in Mexico, landing in the Top Ten most watched HBO Max launches in the country. With many studios looking to expand their range of content that covers many types of representation, this will be a positive sign that they are on the right track.
Father of The Bride was originally an MG movie back in 1950, but it was the combination of Steve Martin, Diane Keaton and Martin Short in the 1991 remake that many people remember. While many reviews agreed that the new version does not quite match up to the chaotic turn of Martin and Short, who have more recently come together again in the TV series Only Murders In The Building, it seems that audiences have been happy to give the latest take on the story a go.
Andy Garcia Was Honored To Be Part Of The Representative Movie
While the original 1950 movie and the 1991 remake and its sequels focussed on white families, one of the biggest changes in the new remake was to switch this to a Mexican and Cuban family coming together to celebrate a union. To be part of it was something that Andy Garcia told EW was an “honor” to help bring this new version to life. He said:
“There was both an honor and an obligation to deliver a story that’s within the Latin cultures, in this case, the Cuban and the Mexican, trying to relate to one another. There’s an obligation to do it right, represent it without stereotypes, in a way that, although it’s culturally specific, its themes are universal.”
During the same interview, Gloria Estefan, who plays Garcia’s wife in the movie, also echoed the sentiment, adding:
"There's an obligation to do it right, represent it without stereotypes, in a way that, although it's culturally specific, its themes are universal. The fact that we're two Latin cultures blending in that movie — to Anglos that might seem weird because they might pile us all into one lump, when we have these subtle differences."
While there may be a lot of remakes that repeat the same story, in the same way, at least Father of The Bride had an intention behind it, and regardless of whether that makes the remake necessary is irrelevant, as clearly audience have spoken with their remote controls, and make it clear that this was a remake they were happy to see.