Film

The Parent Trap

Name: The Parent Trap
Genre: Comedy, Family, Romance
Released: 1998
Cast: Lindsay Lohan, Dennis Quaid, Natasha Richardson, Elaine Hendrix, Lisa Ann Walter

Other titles called The Parent Trap: the 1961 film.

Screwball comedy
Light-hearted

A glossy 1998 remake built entirely around Lindsay Lohan playing twin sisters who scheme to reunite their divorced parents. Nancy Meyers directs with sun-drenched warmth, bouncing between Napa Valley vineyards and London townhouses, aided by Natasha Richardson's effortless charm and Dennis Quaid's easy dad energy. It's sincere, a little corny, and pure comfort viewing for a lazy afternoon.

TMDb rating

3.6

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you still get a little giddy at a well-built reunion-by-scheming plot, where the fun comes from two sharp performers trading places and the sly grown-up comedy hiding under the kids' mischief.

Skip it if you find the 1990s studio-comedy gloss and the cheerful, broad mugging a hard sell, since the film leans on bright sweetness and a stretch of camp-set farce more than on subtlety.

What it asks of you: Settle in for just over two hours, which is a generous run for a children's-style comedy. Its pace is brisk and bouncy, with little that asks for quiet patience.

Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.

If you liked this

Freaky Friday2003

Lindsay Lohan's other great double act, swapping bodies with her mother instead of swapping places with a twin—same warmth, same slow-dawning empathy, and just as many disguises and mistaken-identity set pieces.

But It's broader and more slapstick than sly, and the romance takes a backseat to mother-daughter chaos.

Mean Girls2004

Lohan's other iconic performance, and proof she could do sharp, cynical comedy just as well as sunny family fare—if you only know her as the sweet twin, this is the other side.

But This is teen high-school satire with real bite, and the innocence and family warmth are gone entirely.

The Princess Diaries2001

Same late-90s/early-2000s Disney glow, same fish-out-of-water charm, and a young star (Anne Hathaway) discovering she's secretly someone else entirely—royalty this time instead of a long-lost sister.

But It's more self-conscious teen-makeover movie than family caper—less scheming, more growing up in public view.

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from The Parent Trap

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Three Identical Strangers2018

The same premise—twins separated at birth, reunited by chance—but true, filmed as documentary, and it takes a hard, devastating turn the Parent Trap would never dare.

A jaw-dropping true story about triplets separated at birth who find each other as adults—joyful at first, then it opens into something much stranger and sadder about nature, nurture, and what was done to them.

But It curdles from feel-good reunion story into genuinely upsetting territory—not for anyone wanting simple charm.

It Takes Two1995

The Olsen twins doing an almost identical switcheroo—two lookalike girls swap lives to engineer a romance for the grown-ups around them. If the premise hooked you, this is the closest cousin.

But Lower budget, broader jokes, and nowhere near as polished—this is comfort junk food, not the real meal.

Father of the Bride1991

Same director's sensibility (Nancy Meyers co-wrote this one too) applied to a different family milestone—warm, funny, a little schmaltzy, with Steve Martin doing lovable-dad exasperation instead of Dennis Quaid's quiet ache.

But No twins, no scheme—just a wedding and a father coming to terms with letting go.

Overboard1987

An earlier entry in the genre of divorced-or-estranged-couples-trick-each-other-back-together comedies, with Goldie Hawn and Kurt Russell instead of Quaid and Richardson, and a con instead of a costume swap.

But Its central premise—gaslighting an amnesiac into loving you—reads very differently now than it did back in 1987.

Cheaper by the Dozen2003

Big blended-family chaos with Steve Martin, cut from the same genial mid-budget-family-comedy cloth—less scheming, more sheer noise, but the same appetite for a full house and warm chaos at the end.

But Twelve kids means the humor is broader and louder, without the twins' tight two-hander dynamic.

Yours, Mine & Ours2005

Another blended-family comedy built on two strong-willed parents (Dennis Quaid again!) merging households and chaos—if you liked watching him navigate a complicated family, here he's outnumbered eighteen-to-two.

But It's a remake of a remake, critically shrugged at, and much more slapstick than heartfelt.

Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen2004

A lighter, lesser-known Lohan vehicle from the same stretch of her career—new school, secret identity of a different kind, and the same easy comic timing that made her a star.

But Thin plot, mixed reviews, and clearly the least essential title on this list—only for Lohan completists.

Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen poster

Dead Ringers1988

Same engine—identical twins whose lives become entangled and interchangeable—rebuilt as body-horror psychological thriller instead of family comedy.

Jeremy Irons plays identical twin gynecologists whose identities start dissolving into each other—Cronenberg takes the 'two people who are really one' idea and pushes it somewhere genuinely disturbing and brilliant.

But Cold, clinical, and deeply unsettling—about as far from cosy family comedy as twins-themed cinema can get.

The Prince and the Pauper1937

Decades before Disney's twin-swap comedies, this is the trope's own ancestor—identical-looking boys of different classes trade places, and the con reshapes both their lives.

A crisp black-and-white classic (from twins themselves, the Mauch brothers) showing that swapped-identity stories go back further than you'd think—same delight in disguise, same eventual reckoning with truth.

But Creakier pacing and old-Hollywood formality; it's period costume drama rather than sun-drenched 90s comfort viewing.