For the 2021 video game of no relation, see here.
It Takes Two is a 1995 comedy film.
Two unrelated young girls who happen to look identical suddenly meet. Amanda Lemmon (Mary-Kate Olsen) is an orphan, and she is about to be adopted by a family whom she doesn't like, the Butkises. She actually wants her child-loving case worker Diane Barrows (Kirstie Alley) to adopt her instead. Diane would like to do the same thing, but authorities will not let her because of her low salary. Alyssa Callaway (Ashley Olsen) is coming home from her boarding school's piano recital competition, only to find that her wealthy father Roger (Steve Guttenberg) is about to marry Clarice Kensington (Jane Sibbett), a socialite who (secretly) hates kids and baseball (which Roger adores).
The girls switch places in a bid to get rid of Clarice and find out that Diane and Roger would fit together perfectly. So they arrange "chance" meetings with the desired result: they fall in love with each other. After some turbulences, Alyssa (who poses as Amanda) ends up being adopted by the Butkises. She and Diane (while looking for Alyssa) find out the only reason they have adopted many kids was for them to work in their salvage yard.
When Clarice secretly spies on Roger and Diane, she decides to move up the wedding from the next month to the next day. After Amanda, who poses as Alyssa, proves to the family butler Vincenzo (Philip Bosco) who she really is at the church, he summons to have the real Alyssa picked up from the Butkises' salvage yard to stall the wedding. Once she and Diane end up at the church, Roger stops the wedding and tells Clarice that he fell in love with Diane. Furious, she slaps him and prepares to do the same to both Amanda and Alyssa but is stopped by both Vincenzo and Diane. She storms out of the church, embarrassed. Alyssa embarrasses Clarice even more by stepping on her dress, revealing the back of her underpants in front of everybody, including people with cameras. Roger and Diane both find out in the end that it was Amanda and Alyssa that arranged all the meetings between the two of them the entire time.
In a nutshell, this is what The Parent Trap would look like if the twin sisters were identical strangers.
This film contains examples of:
- All Girls Like Ponies: Alyssa is an incredible talent on horseback, having won tournaments as we see the trophies in her room. It's the polar opposite of Amanda, who is terrified of horses and almost blows the charade when Roger takes her out on one after they have switched places.
- Alliterative Name:
- The Butkises change the names of all the children they adopt to a name that starts with "B", resulting in this. Alyssa was called Betty during her time there. Tellingly, their biological child, Harry, Jr., is the only one without an alliterative name.
- Callaway names:
- Camp Callaway
- Cathy Callaway, after marriage.
- Clarice Callaway, if she had gotten married.
- Almost Kiss: Happens a couple of times between Roger and Diane. Then they get a Big Damn Kiss at the end after Diane stops the wedding.
- Altar the Speed: Clarice attempts this after noticing the growing bond between Roger and Diane. She does carry out the wedding, but Roger turns her down at the altar when he sees Diane for a last time and realizes he's fallen for her instead.
- And I'm the Queen of Sheba:
- Early in the film, when the orphans are exploring the camp and see the Callaway mansion across the lake.
Kid: Every full moon, Old Lady Callaway's ghost crosses the lake and eats one of the campers.
Amanda: Yeah, and Santa Claus lives with the Tooth Fairy in Queens.- Also in the climax, when Alyssa (posing as Amanda) attempts to reveal her real identity after being adopted by the Butkises.
Alyssa: My name is Alyssa Callaway!
Harry Butkis: Yeah, right, and I'm Princess Di. - Artistic License – Child Labor Laws: The Butkises' used their "adopted" children as unpaid laborers in their junkyard. This would run afoul of real-life federal and state-level labor laws, which do not allow those under 18 to work in hazardous occupations.
- Big Bad: Gold Digger, Child Hater and Jerkass Clarice, who is set up to marry Roger.
- Big Fancy House: The Callaway Mansion. The orphans think it's haunted.
- Big "OMG!": After Clarice sees that Amanda spit gum into her hair.
- Big "SHUT UP!": Clarice gives one to her father after he reminds her that she is the last to be married.
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing:
- Clarice.
- Also the Butkises. They're not nearly the warm and friendly adoptive parents they may appear to at first sight.
- Big Damn Heroes: The people from the Callaway estate who show up in a helicopter to rescue Alyssa, who had been posing as Amanda, from the Butkises' salvage yard. They then proceed to land the helicopter in the middle of Central Park.
- The Big Damn Kiss: Roger and Diane at the end. Finally.
- Bitch Slap: Clarice gives one to Roger at the wedding. He even says he deserved it.
- Chekhov's Skill: Alyssa's talent at miming passing out first gets used when she finds out that Clarice and Roger are getting married. It gets used again during a game of Charades.
- Damsel in Distress: Diane in the scene where Roger rescues her from the agitated horse.
- Dark Is Not Evil / Light Is Not Good: Diane, who wears mostly black, vs. Clarice in the obvious white wedding dress in the climax.
- Deadpan Snarker: Diane gets a lot of sarcastic lines, but that's no surprise since she's portrayed by the Queen of Snark, Kirstie Alley.
- Deceased Parents Are the Best: Alyssa never knew her mother Cathy, but she knows that she was a good woman who loved Roger. She was also a Friend to All Children, as she created the camp that Amanda attends.
- Department of Child Disservices: Diane's employers won't let her adopt Amanda because she doesn't make enough money, yet are perfectly willing to foist Amanda on the Butkises - a family that turns out to have been adopting kids by the half dozen to force them to work in their junkyard. The fact that a neighbor brings this last point up in casual conversation makes it even worse - the Butkises aren't even keeping it a secret. They also apparently process the adoption of Amanda to the Butkises without going over Diane’s report, implying that they’re sloppy with paperwork and uncaring what happens to the kids under their care.Diane (on the phone to DSS): Let me just run this by you one more time, okay? Please, just hear me out, one more time. Okay. I know I don't make that much money, and I know that I'm a little bit single, but I want to adopt Amanda. No, I - Are you laughing at me? (disbelieving) He's laughing at me! You... YOU STUPID JERK! (slams down phone)
- Disposable Love Interest: For once in a romantic comedy, it's completely understandable that Clarice gets dumped in the climax. Clarice is an evil child-hating, emotionally abusive Rich Bitch who just wants Roger for his money. Getting left at the altar is precisely what she deserves, given what an awful person she is.
- Family Theme Naming: The adopted Butkises all have B names.
- Fainting: Alyssa's (fake) reaction when her father reveals that he intends to marry Clarice. According to Roger, she does this often when she is displeased. She later (pretending to be Amanda) does it when she doesn't know what to do during a game of charades, and it ends up helping them win the game.
- Freudian Excuse: Clarice is implied to be The Unfavorite of the family, which may be why she's so deeply unpleasant.
- Food Fight: Alyssa starts one in the camp mess hall before her and Amanda's cover gets blown.
- Gag Haircut: Amanda deliberately puts gum into Clarice's hair, and her hairdresser is apparently unable to remove it. When she shows up again, it's been cut short into an awfully unflattering do.
- Gold Digger: Clarice. She doesn't really like him, hates his kid, and just wants to be rich and married, so she does whatever it takes to try and get him to the altar.
- Hate Sink: Good God, Clarice. She has an Establishing Character Moment where she walks into Roger's house and, not knowing his daughter is hiding behind a curtain, actually says out loud that, "No wonder [his wife] is dead. She had absolutely no taste." The comment is so shockingly evil that it lets you know that there is nothing redeemable about her, even her backstory of being the last in her family to marry. She's a selfish rich bitch from hell and is incredibly nasty to Roger's daughter (both of them) and even sinks low enough to try to hit them when they bring Roger's REAL love to the wedding in order to stop it. Her comeuppance at the end is very, very satisfying.
- It's minor, but whomever it was on the phone with Diane who had the nerve to laugh at her when she finally expresses that she loves Amanda and was hoping to adopt her someday. That is just unacceptable behavior, especially since Diane is a loving woman who supports all the kids she cares for equally and has gone out of her way to try to take care of Amanda in particular.
- The Butkiss family is not only odious but would definitely face criminal charges after the events of the film. Diane discovers that they basically only adopt kids to get a check from the government and put all the kids to work for free in their salvage yard. They're definitely irredeemable in every sense of the word using child labor to get ahead.
- Hero Stole My Bike: In the climax, Diane and Alyssa steal a Central Park horse-drawn buggy in order to get to the chapel in time to stop the wedding.
- Horrible Judge of Character: Roger can't tell Clarice is a bitch from hell since she acts all sweet whenever he's around (and this is a kids movie, but we can also assume she's probably using her sexual prowess so he doesn't notice she's awful too).
- How Many Fingers?: Diane to Roger after he falls off of his horse.
- Hypocrite: Roger hates cell phones, but he made his fortune by investing in the cell phone industry.
- Identical Stranger: Guess who!
- "I Know What We Can Do" Cut: The girls' decision to get Roger and Diane to meet while horseback riding.
- Insult Backfire: Clarice is having a wedding party and tells everyone that Alyssa will now play something from her latest recital, not knowing that she's with Amanda, who can't play a damn thing on a piano. Amanda tells her she can't play, so Clarice stoops down to her level and snarls that she will make Amanda's life a living hell if she doesn't do it. She ends with, "Am I clear?" Amanda, who had just spit out some escargot when she found out it's a snail and it's nasty, then says, "Crystal. In fact, I can see right through you." Then she drops the discarded escargot into Clarice's champagne, goes up and tells everyone she's playing something just for Clarice whom she absolutely adoooooooooores and then proceeds to just bang on the keys as hard and fast as she can, playing zero melody and therefore humiliating Clarice in front of her friends and family.
- Kids Play Match Breaker: The girls' scheme to break up Rodger and his gold-digging fiancé so he can be with Diane instead.
- Kids Play Matchmaker: The premise involves two girls trying to get their parental figures to meet.
- Love at First Sight: It takes Diane and Roger just their first encounter to get mutually besotted, and three to all-out fall for each other.
- Mama Bear: Diane, particularly near the end of the film. She nearly hits the father of the Butkis family when retrieving Alyssa, as she has just found out that they adopt kids just so they can put them to work for free in their junkyard.
- Match Cut: When Amanda gets settled in at camp, she places her hat on her bed. The scene cuts to Alyssa doing the same in her room.
- Missing Mom/Death by Childbirth: Alyssa's biological mom died shortly after giving birth to her, which resulted in Roger spending the next 10 years retreating from the summer camp established by him and his late wife.
- Naked Freak-Out: Happens to Clarice after Alyssa steps on her wedding dress, ripping off the entire skirt revealing her white panties.
- Off to Boarding School: Clarice plans to send Alyssa to a boarding school in Tibet.
- Open Mouth, Insert Foot: Roger unwisely takes a phone call from Clarice after rescuing Diane and she's patching him up after he hit his head on a branch after saving her on horseback. Diane overhears him insisting to Clarice that she's nobody, which gets on her nerves, so she walks out on him before he finishes the phone call. Roger is apologetic, but she still leaves. He apologizes profusely the next time he meets her.
- Overcrank: To avoid being discovered, Alyssa trips Frankie, causing him to cover Roger in macaroni and cheese. It triggers a massive Food Fight.
- Papa Wolf: Vincenzo, like Diane, gets a moment of this near the end of the film. The threat is so effective that Clarice appears to believe him and doesn't try to hit the girl.Vincenzo: Lady, if you touch that child, I'll pop you one, so help me God.
- Parental Substitute: Diane loves Amanda like her own, but social services don't see her as a suitable foster parent.
- Parent with New Paramour: Up until the climax, Roger is engaged to Clarice. She's terrible.
- Precision F-Strike: An adorable, Rated G version occurs in the climax. Alyssa and Diane arrive at the wedding, but Diane tries to back out at the last second. Alyssa then demands that she get her butt over there and stop that wedding. This statement coming from the usually meek, shy, polite Alyssa is what convinces Diane not to chicken out saving Roger from marrying the wrong woman.
- Prince and Pauper: Rich girl and orphan girl take advantage of being identical strangers to live each other's lives.
- Race for Your Love / Speak Now or Forever Hold Your Peace / Wedding Smashers: The climax has Alyssa and Diane racing to the church to stop Roger from marrying Clarice. Luckily, Amanda is smart enough to stall for time by being the slowest flower girl of all time and they make it, intercepting the wedding before Roger says yes and he eventually doesn't go through with it and gets slapped for his trouble. He admits he deserves it, though.
- Rescue Romance: Roger saves Diane from her horse, and Diane gives Roger first aid when he falls off of his horse.
- Rich in Dollars, Poor in Sense: A non-villainous version with Roger, who is woefully naïve for a millionaire. He doesn't pick up on the fact that Clarice is a nasty woman who hates children and sports and is just interested in the luxury lifestyle she'll get to enjoy if she marries him. He seems to just be a Horrible Judge of Character and then there's also the fact that she just fakes being nice to him to get what she wants. When she's alone with Alyssa (who is actually Amanda), she drops the façade and threatens the child to play the piano for her guests. Amanda proceeds to then go in there and just bang on the keys in no discernible rhythm to humiliate her in retaliation.
- Rich Language, Poor Language: Amanda, who grew up in an orphanage, has a thick Brooklyn accent, while Alyssa, who grew up attending boarding schools and living in a variety of upstate mansions, enunciates every word with the utmost care.
- Rule of Pool: Subverted. Rule of lake—after the food fight, Roger decides the easiest way to clean off is to jump into the lake, fully clothed. Diane doesn't want to jump in after him, but he teases her, so she relents and jumps in with him. They have an Almost Kiss, but the girls (who are watching from afar) accidentally knock over the canoes and ruin the moment. Roger then finally admits he's engaged to Clarice, so Diane bows out from the romance until the climax where Alyssa convinces her that he's in love with her and they race to stop the wedding.
- Scar Survey: How Amanda eventually convinces Vincenzo that she is not Alyssa. She starts showing him all the scars she's obtained from being a rough and tumble tomboy, and Vincenzo believes her right away since he raised Alyssa from a baby and thus knows every single mark on her body. Like everyone else, he's amazed to find an identical stranger.
- Self-Made Man: Roger Calloway. He made his money "the old-fashioned way - pure dumb luck"
- Servile Snarker: Vincenzo. He is full of one-liners and even gets to finally dispatch Clarice's snobby ass when she tries to hit one of the girls.
- Spoiled Sweet: Alyssa is the daughter of a wealthy man and seems to get whatever she wants. However, she is very polite and kind to others.
- Roger also technically counts since he's a millionaire, yet is a sweet, kind guy instead of being a rich snob like Clarice.
- Summer Campy: Most of the film's plot is set at Camp Callaway.
- Tomboy and Girly Girl: Amanda loves playing baseball, has no qualms about getting dirty, and wears primarily shorts and T-shirts with the occasional baseball cap. Alyssa wears frilly dresses, performs in piano recitals, and is much more soft-spoken and polite.
- Tomboyish Baseball Cap: Amanda occasionally wears one. Alyssa later wears one when posing as Amanda.
- Twin Switch: Naturally, as it's an Olsen Twins Movie; however, here it forms the very essence of the plot.
- Uptown Girl: Diane believed rich guys like Roger would never marry people like her. Alyssa-as-Amanda tells her otherwise, that the late Mrs. Calloway was a teacher.
- What Does She See in Him?: Clarice is a Child Hater sports hater bitch who barely hides her nasty behavior. Yet Roger is marrying her.
- Witch with a Capital "B": Clarice. She is literally introduced insulting Alyssa's dead mother's taste in decorations and it's just all downhill from there, especially the scene where she forces who she thinks is Alyssa to play the piano for all her guests. Her comeuppance at the end is immensely satisfying.
- Wicked Stepmother: Clarice is aiming to become one to Alyssa. The Butkises are Wicked Stepparents who adopt kids to use them as unpaid labor in their salvage yard.
- Would Hit a Girl: Vincenzo doesn't actually go through with it, but he's not shy about making the threat.Vincenzo: (to Clarice) Lady, if you touch that child, I will pop you one, so help me God.
- Would Hurt a Child: When Clarice realizes she's lost, she is only too ready to hit the girls. Only timely interference from Vincenzo and Diane keeps her from doing so.
