THE PARENT TRAP

Yes — and gladly. Remakes rarely improve on the original, but Nancy Meyers's take on The Parent Trap does, landing as one of Disney's best releases in years. Its comic timing is sharp, its heart is bigger, and it actually affirms marriage, both parents, and the values most families already hold.

There are a few things worth knowing going in. Eleven exclamations invoke God's name — things like "Oh, my God" and "God, please help me" — not spoken profanely, but borderline enough that some parents will want to weigh in beforehand. There's also a mild obscenity, a gross-out camp prank involving a lizard, some kissing and innuendo, and a plot built on the twins' deception of their parents — deception the film never really rebukes.

None of that outweighs what the film gets right. This is cute, funny, moral, and genuinely moving — a rare movie that had audiences laughing and crying in the same scene. Take the family; just be ready to talk about the God-exclamations afterward if that's a household rule.

Hallie Parker and Annie James arrive at summer camp as strangers and rivals — until they realize, with a shock, that they're identical twins. Separated at birth when their parents split up, the girls hatch a plan: swap places, meet the parent they've never known, and see what happens next. Standing in their way is their father's new love interest, Meredith Blake — and she is not thrilled to have competition for the family's attention.

Four stars, and they're earned. Nancy Meyers directs with a fine sense of comic timing, and the film's rhythms — camp rivalry curdling into partnership, a household of adults slowly joining the twins' scheme — never drag. The opening, a tight shot of the Bible during Nick and Elizabeth's wedding vows aboard an ocean liner, sets a tone of real reverence for marriage that the rest of the film honors. The butler and nanny supply much of the comic relief while still modeling right moral choices, and Elaine Hendrix plays the villainous Meredith with enough venom to make her a memorable foil. The result had audiences laughing, crying, and enjoying nearly every scene — a great remake of a great story.

This is, at heart, a Christian-affirming film. It exalts marriage, the need for both a mother and a father, and family loyalty — values the film treats as worth fighting for, not relics to be modernized away. The wedding vows opening on a shot of Scripture is no accident; the whole story moves toward restoring what was broken.

Two things temper that. The twins' entire plan runs on deception — tricking their parents into proximity so love can rekindle — and the film never rebukes that dishonesty, even as it rewards it with a happy ending. One scene of drunkenness gets only a mild rebuke. And the exclamations of God's name, while not used as profanity, sit close enough to the line that thoughtful families will want to talk about them rather than wave them off.

Even so, the film's longing is one Scripture shares: the ache for a divided family made whole. God is, famously, in the business of restoration — He "settles the solitary in a home" (Psalm 68:6) and promises to "turn the hearts of fathers to their children" (Malachi 4:6). A movie that ends with a broken family reunited is echoing something true, even when its own methods for getting there fall short of the standard it otherwise honors.

The Parent Trap is the rare remake that improves on its predecessor — funny, warm, and unashamedly in favor of marriage and family. It earns a few honest cautions about mild language and a deception plot the film never quite reckons with, but neither should keep you home. Worth the trip.