Father of the Bride is a 2022 American dramedy film directed by Gaz Alazraki. It is the third film adaptation of the 1949 Edward Streeter novel of the same name (after the 1950 and 1991 versions), and differentiates itself from its predecessors by featuring an all-Latino cast. This time around, the father is played by Andy García, and the bride by Adria Arjona.
Long-married Cuban-American couple Billy (García) and Ingrid (Gloria Estefan) Herrera are surprised when their beloved eldest daughter Sofia (Arjona) introduces her new Mexican fiance Adan Castillo (Diego Boneta). Billy dislikes Adan and his family, including his rich and similarly strong-willed father Hernan (Pedro Damian), is put off by the couple's unconventional choices, and is discomfited that Adan and Sofia would like to move to Mexico. Further complicating matters is that Billy and Ingrid are on the brink of divorce, but don't want to ruin Sofia's happiness.
The film also stars Isabela Merced and Chloe Fineman. It is was released on June 16, 2022 on HBO Max.
Tropes:
- Adaptational Angst Upgrade: This adaptation adds a lot more conflicts to Adan's situation aside from having to deal with his daughter's wedding, from the fact that she and her husband are planning to move to Mexico soon after the wedding, to the cultural clash with the groom's family and also being on the brink of divorcing his wife.
- Bilingual Bonus: A fair amount of Spanish unsurprisingly is spoken in the film, although the main medium of communication is still English, even between first-generation Cubans Billie and Ingrid.
- Bourgeois Bohemian: Adan is from a rich family but is a vegetarian and enough of a hippie to want his guru to officiate the wedding.
- Crusading Lawyer: Billy is appalled that his daughter Sofia and her soon-to-be-husband Adan want to move to Mexico to work for a nonprofit helping immigrants at the border when they could get any job they wanted as NYU Law grads. He sees it as a downgrade to their comfortable lives in America and the gains that Billy's generation has made. Adan clarifies that Sofia wanted to do it because she had Immigrant Parents.
- Doting Parent: The trailer quickly establishes that Billy dotes on Sofia with a monologue about the special father-daughter bond set to "Isn't She Lovely", a Parental Love Song about the singer's daughter. He then hugs Sofia for an embarrassingly long time.
- Foolish Sibling, Responsible Sibling: Sisters Cora (Foolish) and Sofia (Responsible). Sofia is a polished law school graduate, while Cora is a rebellious college dropout. It's telling that Billy is glowingly proud of Sofia's lawyering, but resists giving Cora her college fund to start her own business.
- Girl Friday: Gender-Inverted. The female wedding planner Natalie has a chirpy gay man as her dutiful right-hand assistant.
- Happy Marriage Charade: Billy and Ingrid agree to hide their impending divorce until after their daughter's wedding, and are seen negotiating in the car about how affectionate they can be.
- Immigrant Parents: Billy and Ingrid are both Cuban immigrants who met in Miami and started a family. Billy likes to talk about how he came to America with nothing and slowly became one of Miami's most renowned architects. One of the film's thematic conflicts is Billy wanting to hold on to his cultural traditions, and his daughter Sofia wanting to start her own.
- Implied Love Interest: Aside from having no heterosexual love interest, Cora meeting Vanessa—one of Sofia's bridesmaids—is treated with a lot of weight; Vanessa is helping Cora with the work on the dresses constantly throughout the movie and by the end during the wedding reception, Cora and Vanessa are seen dancing with each other—making the sexual chemistry more than apparent.
- It's Cuban: Just before the wedding, Billy scoffs at Hernan ordering boxes of Mexican cigars. After it, he busts out a couple of Cuban cigars and shares one with his new consuegro, clarifying that these cigars were pre-Castro.
- Jock Dad, Nerd Son: Adan is a softspoken lawyer who dislikes sports, while his father Hernan is a pompous businessman who dabbles in several sports. Hernan laments late in the film about where he went wrong with Adan, and Billy reassures him that he raised a good son.
- The Missus and the Ex: There's apparent tension between Hernan's first wife Marcela and his much-younger second wife Julieta. Subverted: they get along swimmingly at Sofia's bachelorette party. When Ingrid says she thought they hated each other, Marcela and Julieta say they just pretend to hate each other for Hernan's benefit.
- Monochrome Casting: A borderline case. Not only is the cast overwhelmingly Latino, but in the main White Latinos too.
- Practically Different Generations: Fresh law school grad Adan has a baby brother due to his father remarrying a woman his age.
- Race Lift: Ethnicity swap. Unlike the source material and both previous film adaptations where the characters were Anglo Americans, this film involves the union of a Mexican family and a Cuban-American family.
- Spexico: One of Natalie's first pitches for the wedding theme involves flamenco. Billy is quick to point out that flamenco is Spanish, and her clients are Mexican and Cuban.Natalie: Teachable moment.
- Wealthy Yacht Owner: Hernan's obscene wealth is displayed when the family arrives at his huge yacht. Billy comments that he is like a James Bond villain.
