Dear Parent Trap,
You changed my brain chemistry so profoundly when I was a kid – a “thank you, I love you“ is overdue.
As a german kid I was raised on the children book classics by Erich Kästner. My favorite one was always “Das doppelte Lottchen”. The fantasy of randomly crossing paths with a twin sister lived vividly in my brain. To an 8-year-old, nothing sounds cooler than having an identical twin who would understand you like nobody else and who you could do silly pranks with all the time.
So, it comes as no surprise, that the modern movie adaptation The Parent Trap quickly became one of my favorite and most obsessively rewatched movies. We had it on VHS.
I putting it on and getting so hyped every time L-O-V-E played over the montage of the parents on the cruise ship. We were in for greatness.
Everything about the camp and the “meet cute” of the two twins, played by the most iconic redhead of the early 2000s, Miss Lindsay Lohan, was absolute perfection to me. The fencing scene even inspired a short era of me trying to get into fencing myself. Though the same can’t be said about learning to play poker or piercing ears with a sterilized needle and an apple.

What ultimately made this movie (and the source material) so special to me was that the girls were the ones in power. The Parent Trap convinced me that, to quote Matilda The Musical  “even if your little you can do a lot”. You can gaslight your estranged parents into falling in love again, you can declare your dad’s new girlfriend as Cruella De Vil and turn her life into a living hell. And you can be charming, witty and funny doing it.
Above all this movie highlights the unique bond between sisters and by extension female friendships/relationships.
Let’s also not forget how absolutely excellent this movie LOOKS.
Director Nancy Meyers (The Holiday) collaborated with Dean Cundey in the cinematography department. Cundey is known for his work on movies such as The Thing and Back to the Future (also The Holiday AND Camp Rock!!). I recently stumbled upon a video essay on how movies look today vs 20-30 years ago. The prime example for a well shot movie looks was The Parent Trap. Highly recommend you check that out.
 
So, dear Parent Trap. Thank you for existing. Thank you for looking so good and being so fun.
If you now feel like, damn I really want to watch The Parent Trap on the big screen, boy do I have news for you: You can do so on March 19th 8pm at Odeon.
Much love,
Your biggest Fan