Many people may dismiss this film as a mindless and superficial embarrassment of their youth, but I say it's a proper simple, beautiful, feel-good family(ish) comedy; a nostalgic delight much forgotten for the worse.
Quite a basic (if slightly silly) plot. Set in a luxury Caribbean beach resort, a confused teenage girl and her French divorcee father share a holiday to make up for years of one another's absence. In order to impress a local boy, the girl makes up an absurd story about her father actually being her lover, in order to seem 'grown up'. Subsequently he has to endure much contempt and discrimination from the other holidaymakers, while persistently telephoning his fiancee, dropping hints of potential marriage.
The great thing about this film requires no introduction; the beautiful Caribbean location and the holiday setting. Uplifting and 'feel-good' throughout - even in the bleakest parts of the story, the setting alone is a reason to watch; beautiful skimpily-clad girls, teal blue open sea, gold sand, palm trees and everyone having a lovely warm sunny holiday. Sure the resort in the Bahamas where it was shot would have been very expensive and possibly manufactured and 'spoiled', but nonetheless it bares that tender, uplifting naturalistic beauty. (hey, go to a similar Scottish beach if you want something completely unspoiled !)
Another thing that's particularly significant about this film is the era-neutral cultural style. Although made in 1994, there is little or no reference to contemporary popular culture. Sure, Catherine Heigl (the teen girl) could have had the blonde bob, skinny-fit t-shirts & PVC miniskirts of that lurid mid-90's 'Britpop' era. Instead, she had natural long hair and simple, traditional floral dresses that perhaps looked a tad 'mumsy' for a girl her age. I suppose the naturalistic Caribbean setting itself was quite neutral of contemporary fads and trends, as was the simple West Indian local culture. Basically, it's a mid-90's film that looks like it could have been shot in the 80's, the 70's even. Even the neon-type opening titles seemed dated by 1994. Perhaps the calypso-pop - as performed throughout the film by The Baha Men - is the nearest hint of the era, what with similar reggae-pop being all the chart rage back then !
Regarding the film's characters, I suppose it requires no introduction that the girl is quite annoying, what with her neurotic and potentially dangerous lies about her murderer-robber-jailbird father, as well as her cliched drama Queen quotes; "He'll hate me Daddy - I'm gonna die if I don't see him !" Also goes without saying that in real life everyone would have assumed right from the off that she was just saying her father was her lover in order to try and impress, especially since she calls him 'Daddy' and he has an open platonic relationship with another holidaymaker (redhead Faith Prince).
All in all, I give in 9/10 for being simple, naturalistic and beautiful, enlightening and generally feel-good classic fun.
Quite a basic (if slightly silly) plot. Set in a luxury Caribbean beach resort, a confused teenage girl and her French divorcee father share a holiday to make up for years of one another's absence. In order to impress a local boy, the girl makes up an absurd story about her father actually being her lover, in order to seem 'grown up'. Subsequently he has to endure much contempt and discrimination from the other holidaymakers, while persistently telephoning his fiancee, dropping hints of potential marriage.
The great thing about this film requires no introduction; the beautiful Caribbean location and the holiday setting. Uplifting and 'feel-good' throughout - even in the bleakest parts of the story, the setting alone is a reason to watch; beautiful skimpily-clad girls, teal blue open sea, gold sand, palm trees and everyone having a lovely warm sunny holiday. Sure the resort in the Bahamas where it was shot would have been very expensive and possibly manufactured and 'spoiled', but nonetheless it bares that tender, uplifting naturalistic beauty. (hey, go to a similar Scottish beach if you want something completely unspoiled !)
Another thing that's particularly significant about this film is the era-neutral cultural style. Although made in 1994, there is little or no reference to contemporary popular culture. Sure, Catherine Heigl (the teen girl) could have had the blonde bob, skinny-fit t-shirts & PVC miniskirts of that lurid mid-90's 'Britpop' era. Instead, she had natural long hair and simple, traditional floral dresses that perhaps looked a tad 'mumsy' for a girl her age. I suppose the naturalistic Caribbean setting itself was quite neutral of contemporary fads and trends, as was the simple West Indian local culture. Basically, it's a mid-90's film that looks like it could have been shot in the 80's, the 70's even. Even the neon-type opening titles seemed dated by 1994. Perhaps the calypso-pop - as performed throughout the film by The Baha Men - is the nearest hint of the era, what with similar reggae-pop being all the chart rage back then !
Regarding the film's characters, I suppose it requires no introduction that the girl is quite annoying, what with her neurotic and potentially dangerous lies about her murderer-robber-jailbird father, as well as her cliched drama Queen quotes; "He'll hate me Daddy - I'm gonna die if I don't see him !" Also goes without saying that in real life everyone would have assumed right from the off that she was just saying her father was her lover in order to try and impress, especially since she calls him 'Daddy' and he has an open platonic relationship with another holidaymaker (redhead Faith Prince).
All in all, I give in 9/10 for being simple, naturalistic and beautiful, enlightening and generally feel-good classic fun.