History Film / TheParentTrap1998

* AlwaysIdenticalTwins: The girls being identical twins is what allows them to pull the switch off. That being said, the girls' personalities are so different, they need weeks of coaching to really pull it off. Even then, little behavioral quirks slip through and get the adults suspicious.

* SpoiledSweet: Both Elizabeth and her daughter Annie are clearly very well-to-do - living in a very posh part of London and having a butler and driver. Elizabeth however is a sweet woman and a doting mother, while Annie is the nicer of the two sisters.

* TemptingFate: Annie waking up at the cabin disaster dodges several water balloons. "Gosh, she didn't get me1" and smiles with satisfaction. Then a HUGE water balloon falls on her, soaking her.

It is a remake of the 1961 Disney film ''Film/{{The Parent Trap|1961}}'', which is based on a 1949 German book, ''[[Literature/LottieAndLisa Das doppelte Lottchen]]'' by Erich Kästner.

It is a remake of the 1961 Disney film ''Film/{{The Parent Trap|1961}}'', which is based on a 1949 book, ''[[Literature/LottieAndLisa Das doppelte Lottchen]]''.

* AndStarring: "Introducing Lindsay Lohan".

* MadonnaWhoreComplex: Done subtly. Elizabeth -- the wholesome mother -- is given a more earthy look, with soft makeup and modest clothes. Meredith -- the vampy evil girlfriend -- is done up in sexier clothes, with more fashionable hair and makeup. Further underlining things is the colours they wear in the first scene they appear in together -- Elizabeth in [[WomanInWhite white]] and Meredith in black.

* AlwaysIdenticalTwins: The girls being identical twins is what allows them to pull the switch off.

* IdenticalTwinIDTag: The twins start off easily identifiable by their hairstyles, clothing and accents. Throughout the course of their time at camp, they alter their appearances so that they are identical. The only way to tell them apart in the third act is by the accents, and they're able to fake those convincingly enough that not even the girls' father can be completely sure he knows which is which.

* ImportantHaircut: Hallie gives one to Annie.
* InelegantBlubbering: Martin when Hallie reveals herself to Elizabeth.

* RichBitch: Meredith. It may be more accurate to call her an ''aspiring'' Rich Bitch, as her GoldDigger plot falls through and so she never actually qualifies for the rich part.

* RichBitch: Elizabeth. It may be more accurate to call her an ''aspiring'' Rich Bitch, as her GoldDigger plot falls through and so she never actually qualifies for the rich part.

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/f4527c0cc577883d048c0c4f1b9ce901.png]]
[[caption-width-right:350:"We're, like, twins!"]]

* KarmaHoudini: The parents, who pay for willingly denying their children the chance to know about one another and having multiple family members and friends lie to them for years by being reunited as a couple and a family.

* ParentWithNewParamour: The father has just started dating a new girlfriend who happens to bw a GoldDigger.

** Chessy is even treated nicely by Elizabeth, who is intoxicated at the time of their meeting again after years apart.

* ParentWithNewParamour: The father has just started dating a new girlfriend -- who is a GoldDigger.

* PopculturalOsmosisFailure: When their father chides the twins to treat Meredith better as she isn't accustomed to camping and hiking, he tells them she's not Annie Oakley. Hallie responds, "Who's Annie Oakley?"

* RhetoricalQuestionBlunder: When Elizabeth is getting emotional about the thought of meeting Nick for the first time after so many years, she spouts off several of these to Martin--as well as insisting him not to answer any of them.

* SettingUpdate: Both films move the setting to contemporary America (from 1940s Germany in the book, and 1960s America in the earlier film).
* SheCleansUpNicely: Nick has a reaction like this when Elizabeth gets dressed up for the dinner on the ship because he's only seen her half hungover, though of course the audience has seen her looking flawless before.

** Martin suggests a LittleBlackDress for Elizabeth with her legs.
** A very drunk ("totally zonked!") Elizabeth attempts to get out of the cab at the hotel feet first, showing serious leg.

** "The man went completely ashen, like I was the bloody [[Literature/AChristmasCarol Ghost of Christmas Past]]!"
** "Is that my little girl? That tall, gangly thing?"

* SoreLoser: When Annie defeats Hallie in fencing and accidentally pushes her in some water, Hallie pulls her into the water when Annie tries to help her up.

* SolomonDivorce: The parents of a pair of infant twin girls each take one with them after they divorce, and the children only find out about it after meeting each other by chance when they're teenagers.
* SophisticatedAsHell: Elizabeth might seem like a proper high class fashion designer, but when she finds out about the plan, intoxication ensues and you see just how loopy she really is.

** One of the first signs that something is funny about the girls is the fact that both of them like to eat Oreos topped with peanut butter, which everybody else seems to find disgusting.

* SymbolicallyBrokenObject: The girls each have half of a torn-in-half photo of their parents.

* TarAndFeathers: The last event in the EscalatingWar between the twins involves doing this with chocolate syrup.
* TellMeAboutMyFather: Played with. It's actually Hallie-posing-as-Annie who asks, so she already knows all about her father and what she's really wanting to know is what her mother is willing to say.
* TemptingFate: Annie waking up at the cabin disaster dodges several water balloons. "Gosh she didn't get me." and smiles with satisfaction. Then a HUGE water balloon falls on top of her soaking her.

* TwoHalvesMakeAPlot: Annie and Hallie each have half of the same picture and it's the only picture they have of their DisappearedDad or MissingMom. This is what makes them realize they are twins.

* VillainousBreakdown: Meredith has one after being pranked by the twins and Nick dumps her.
* WhatDoesSheSeeInHim: Wondered by the housekeeper about the GoldDigger dating the Father, not that the Father is ugly, but he's usually a Regular Joe and isn't very witty or "one of those charm fellows".
* WickedStepmother: Thankfully averted with Meredith. She makes it clear that she has no intention of being a maternal figure for Annie and Hallie. She gets annoyed with Annie/"Hallie" for figuring out that she wants to marry Nick for his money and initially plans to ship her away after they get married. She finally snaps during the camping trip after the girls' numerous pranks and demands that Nick choose him or his daughters.

* WomenAreWiser: Chessy figures out very quickly that something is different with "Hallie". Her appetite has changed significantly, Sammy barks threateningly at her, and her language is more proper. She almost tells "Hallie" about Annie, leading to Annie confiding in Chessy that it is her.

* ZanyScheme: The entire TwinSwitch scheme to lure the twins' parents back into the same location.

* AdaptationalNiceGuy: The parents are more civil towards each other in this adaptation, even boarding on AmicableExes.

* AdaptationExpansion: The original movie ended with the parents falling back in love immediately after the evil fiancée is seen off. In the remake, it takes more shenanigans before they get back together.

* AuthorAppeal: As in many Nancy Meyers movies, the setting is California. Notable because in the original, the story alternated between Boston and California -- and Boston is replaced with London in the remake. It also deals with middle-aged people falling in love, as a lot of her films do.
* AuthorAvatar: Annie and Hallie were named after director Nancy Meyers and producer Chuck Shyer's daughters.

* BondingOverMissingParents: Leads to Annie and Hallie realizing that they each have the other's missing parent and that they're sisters.

* BritishStuffiness: One of the twins is American and the other is British. Guess which is the proper one and which is the spunky one. But Annie is an outdoorsy girl too who has no problem camping -- in stark contrast to Meredith.

* CastingGag: Vicki, Meredith's mother, is played by Joanna Barnes, who played the equivalent role to Meredith in the 1961 film.
* CelebCrush: Hallie laments that a gust of wind damages her photo of "the beautiful Creator/LeonardoDiCaprio."
* ChekhovsSkill: During the poker game, Hallie mimics Annie's voice. This also acts as {{Foreshadowing}} that she's got a good ear for imitating voices.

* CoordinatedClothes: The twins wear matching outfits several times, sometimes to confuse the others about which twin is which. When the girls refuse to be separated and tell their parents which of them is which, they wear matching outfits in different colors reflecting a combination of both their tastes.

* DoubleVision: Used in places to have the twins interact.
* EscalatingWar: The twins start off hostile to each other, and a prank war ensues. This results in them getting put in the Isolation Cabin and forced to spend time together.
* EstablishingCharacterMoment: Meredith is established as a BitchInSheepsClothing when Annie overhears her lying to a reverend, preventing Nick from taking part in a charity event.

* FakeStatic: Hallie does this to Annie when she is unwilling to believe that her father is going to marry GoldDigger Meredith.

** For that matter, both the twins are quite eloquent for 11-year-olds throughout the movie. It's just that this is the only time adult subject matter gets this treatment.

* GirlyGirlWithATomboyStreak: The blurb describes Annie as a "fair rose from London" and she is the more proper of the twins. But she's still an avid fencer and is happy to go hiking in the mountains on a camping trip.

* GoneSwimmingClothesStolen: When Annie loses the poker game, she has to strip off and jump into the lake. Naturally Hallie steals her clothes afterwards.

* GrayRainOfDepression: When it looks like the plan has failed and the two families part, it's pouring down rain in California when Elizabeth and Annie leave and in London when they arrive. [[spoiler:The rain lets up when they arrive home in London, where Nick and Hallie are waiting for them, having beat them by taking the Concorde.]]

** Annie and her bunkmates. The girls from Hallie's cabin booby trap Annie's cabin while Annie and her cabinmates were asleep. This includes pouring honey on one girl, shaving cream on another, stringing the entire cabin, placing water balloons to fall on the girls, and placing feathers on the top of the ceiling fan so that they would float down when the fan was turned on, which was also booby trapped by pulling on a certain string. That had to take hours and involve ladders moving around the cabin.

* HideousHangoverCure: Elizabeth panicked during the flight and drank everything in sight, so this was necessary.

* IdenticalTwinIDTag: The twins start off easily identifiable by their hairstyles, clothing and accents. Throughout the course of camp, they alter their appearances so that they are identical. The only way to tell them apart in the third act is by the accents, and they're able to fake those convincingly enough that not even the girls' father can be completely sure he knows which is which.

-->'''Annie:''' She's never had more than one glass of wine in her entire life. And she chooses ''today'' to show up totally zonked!

* LampshadeHanging: The last line of dialogue in the film is Hallie exclaiming, "I can't believe we actually did it!"

** Meredith treats Chessy like a talking dog who would be summoned with a bell, which is a sign of her poor character.
** Chessy is even treated nicely by Elizabeth who was intoxicated at the time of their meeting again after years apart.

* OffscreenTeleportation: Hallie, an energetic 11-year-old, is shown running several minutes through the streets of London in a series of {{Jump Cut}}s to reach a phone booth away from the house to make her phone call. Her elderly grandfather shows up outside the phone booth less than a minute behind her and he's not even breathing hard.
* OffToBoardingSchool: What would have happened if the fiancée married the father.
* OldManMarryingAChild: Used as an indirect accusation, delivered with SugaryMalice. When Nick tells his daughter that Meredith is about to become part of the family, she surely understands right away that he's talking about marriage. However, she pretends to innocently misunderstand him and get all ecstatic about how he's finally getting one more daughter by adopting her. Annie (pretending to be Hallie) immediately asks Meredith her age and points out that she's only fifteen years older.

* ParentalSubstitute: Chessy acted like a second mother for Hallie and Martin acted like a father to Annie. Makes sense seeing as how they were certain that the girls would never meet their other parent.

* RichBitch: The fiancée. It may be more accurate to call her an ''aspiring'' Rich Bitch, as her GoldDigger plot falls through and so she never actually qualifies for the rich part.
* RichInDollarsPoorInSense: The father falls in love with another woman and fails to notice that the target of his affections is a GoldDigger who doesn't care about him or his daughters.

** Why did she pack a British flag to take to summer camp?

** Hallie arriving in London is of course an excuse for plenty of shots of the various landmarks.

** One of the first signs that something is funny about them is the fact that both of them like to eat Oreos topped with peanut butter, which everybody else seems to find disgusting.

[[caption-width-right:350:"Hallie, we're, like, twins!"]]

* [[TalkingToHimself Talking to Herself]]: Hallie, when we first meet her, as she tries to retrieve her duffel bag from a pile of other duffel bags.

* ZanyScheme

* MusicalNod: A few sentences from "Let's Get Together" song (made famous in the Hayley Mills version) are hummed/spoken by Lindsay Lohan at one point.

* RichBitch: The fiancée. She serves in the role of GoldDigger and ChildHater.

* SolomonDivorce

** A few sentences from "Let's Get Together" song (made famous in the Hayley Mills version) are hummed/spoken by Lindsay Lohan at one point.

** Chessy and Martin are like family to their respective employers. Averted with Meredith who treats Chessy like a talking dog who would be summoned with a bell.

* CampStraight: Martin, Elizabeth's butler.