Let's Get Together

The never ending movie was on last night. For us, that would be "The Parent Trap," the Lindsey Lohan version. The Vansome and I first started watching it our first night in Disney World. We actually missed the first maybe five minutes of it. We stopped on it when Annie arrives at camp. It was cute, so we watched. Soon after, Grammy and Pap arrived from the airport. We were the only ones in our rooms, so I left to show them around. I stayed and talked with them while they had dinner. Shortly after we returned, Brandon and Tina had a luggage emergency, so I was pulled away from the movie again. The Vansome had been watching by himself the entire time. He thought the whole thing was adorable.

I didn't get back to the movie until the part right when the girls decide to get the mom to come to San Francisco. We watched for a while, but it was getting later and later. We kept thinking it was almost over, and then they would start some new misadventure. We had an 8:00 am appointment with a Disney Bus looming, so by the time the girls started to head off on the camping trip, which I knew from the older version, we decided we just weren't up for hijinks in the woods with bears and honey.

Last night after I got home from VBS (see previous post) the Vansome was flipping channels and we saw young Lindsey Lohan again. We thought we might give it another shot. This time, it was right at the part where Halley/Annie was arriving in London for the first time, a whole section of the movie I had missed earlier. We really thought we would be able to see how it ended this time, but once again, we ran out of steam. We turned in pretty early, just about the time the evil fiancee was introduced. I think I was asleep before 10:00.

Of course I know how it ends. I used to love the original. I would like to see this ending, though. This movie can be hard to watch at times, knowing what we all know about young Miss Lohan. She was so absolutely adorable. Really just made me long for a cute little red haired daughter. It just makes me so sad to see her being so cute, and doing a very convincing job of being two people. She had such promise. And now, now she is a trashy little skank. I'm so sad about that. The Vansome thinks that there is still hope. "She's still young," he says. "Look at Drew Barrymore, she turned herself around," he says. I say, "Sorry, Honey, but there's just no getting over trashy. You either are or you're not, and she's proven which side she's on."

As much as I loved the idea of the movie when I was a kid, I've always been bothered by it, too. The secret twin sister was such a cool idea! My BFF Shannon and I used to pretend we were twins named Karen and Sharon. She was always Sharon because it was kind of like her real name and I was Karen because that's my mom's name. I liked the romance of them getting their parents back together because I am, and always have been, a hopeless romantic. What disturbed me even then, and really disturbs me now, is how in the world could anyone think it was a good idea to split up their daughters in the first place? How could you, as a parent, chose one twin to live with you and then pretend the other never existed for the rest of your life? It's so touching when the twins switch places and Halley gets to see her mother for the first time. It even jerked a tear out of the Vansome's dry eyes. But really, at the same time it's just so disturbing. How are those two not in therapy for the rest of their lives? How are they not just so angry at their stupid selfish parents for giving one of them up in the first place?

Oh, I do have such a love/hate thing going on with this movie. I'll have to move it to the top of my Netflix queue so we can finally finish it. Maybe I'll move the older version to the number two spot so we can compare and contrast.