Father of the Bride

There are many reasons why Gloria Estefan is perfect to star in HBO's "Father of the Bride." Her real-life dog-eaten wedding dress is just one.

All of me covered, no lace," says Estefan. "The dress is still there, I took it out recently and just looked at it." "All we can do is be there for them and hopefully be part of that life. "All we want for our kids is for them to be happy. "It was insane, I remember every second," says Estefan. "It could have been a movie." "I thought it was incredibly brave," she says. But she gamely worked into the outfit.

A Cuban American family walks down the aisle, treading carefully along the line separating tradition and tomorrow.

Gloria Estefan stars in HBO Max's remake of "Father of the Bride." (Ricardo DeAratanha / Los Angeles Times). Gloria Estefan's journey to her latest film role ...

I make as many of those moments as possible happen because you have to make it happen ... you have to create it, you have to schedule it, you have to find the moment. It kind of is the way we live our lives — every moment that we have left, I’m going to take advantage and I’m going to show you how much I love you. I was gonna go to the Sorbonne in France and study international law and diplomacy, which was another love, but ... I didn’t want to leave my mom with my dad. The time I spend with my grandson is precious and sacred to me. I believe very much in the collective unconscious ... When I would get in front of those gigantic audiences, my main goal was to get them to relax. And she goes, “Oh my God, how do you do that?” I go, “Do what?” And she goes, “Get your son to call you! It was a masterclass in acting to be with her in that movie. It was an amazing playground to have and to know that we were in the hands of a Hispanic director that cares about what he’s putting on the screen; to know that Andy, who has been our amazing example for decades of great work, cares about what he chooses [and] what gets on the screen. And I see it’s “Father of the Bride,” and I go, “Oh my God, this is big shoes to fill.” And I really knew that I loved it and that one day, I would do it. It was a super-hot day and it rained, which to me is a blessing. After the ceremony, Emilio and I went to the hospital to visit my dad, who hadn’t said a word in like three years and he actually said my name, “Glorita.” And then we went [home] ... we were just gonna have a champagne toast with the close family.

Starring Andy García and Gloria Estefan as parents Billy and Ingrid, the romantic-comedy is a celebration of love and Latin American culture. The film, which is ...

How Does HBO Max's 'Father of the Bride' Compare to Other Versions of the Story? How Does HBO Max's 'Father of the Bride' Compare to Other Versions? Father of the Bride is available to stream on HBO Max now.

That includes us, and he tells us via voiceover that he came to America with nothing. Parked cars to make a living. Met Ingrid (Estefan). Got married. Had two ...

The larger divorce arc is an inspired twist on the original story, lending the plot just enough ironic oomph to give it some dramatic weight and an element of suspense as the show goes on with the wedding plan despite all the inevitable contrived hitches and roadblocks and dust-ups. etc., and Sofia and Adan’s desire to have a small, nontraditional celebration is just the ant in the asphalt under the steamroller. This Father deftly balances a lot of characters and keenly blends a few tones into smooth, easygoing concoction. They decide to sit on the divorce reveal for a month, until she’s all hitched and has her blender and toaster unwrapped and thank you notes in the mail. His savvy-pro performance is an act of coercion, goading us into believing that Billy can learn to shut up and listen, to not make everything about him, to curb his ego for the sake of the people he loves most. That means he’s gonna be the big shot and foot the bill for all their cousins they don’t know to come to the wedding, which will be at the swank hotel, etc. They decide to break the divorce news to Sofia and younger daughter Cora (Isabela Merced, the live-action Dora the Explorer), a hopeful fashion designer, that night. At least this third-generation remake – Father of the Bride, now on HBO Max – puts a fresh spin on the familiar story. All he does is work and watch the Fishing Channel. She wants a divorce. Looks to me like he didn’t do everything right, and he has yet to acknowledge that, eh? That includes us, and he tells us via voiceover that he came to America with nothing. The Gist: Billy Herrera (Garcia) loooooovvvvves to tell anyone who’ll listen – and even those who won’t – about the broad arc of his life.

The iconic actor talks about how the romantic comedy tested through the roof with audiences and early talk of a sequel.

Thompson: There’s a scene in Father of the Bride where you are in a villa, and the fountains suddenly come on behind you. Thompson: With many romantic comedies and family comedies like Father of the Bride, the script is good, and it works, but this script is better than it probably needs to be. Anyway, I meandered my way over there to the fountain; it was a behavioral thing, but the fountain didn’t work, so we were going to put them in using CGI. So the director was waiting for me to settle down and suddenly screamed out, ‘FOUNTAIN!’ As soon as they sent me the first draft, I felt the movie had a lot of potential, and I jumped on board and began to work on the material. We also have to be different, we have to be our own entity, and we have to have an elevated movie. Obviously, we knew we could suggest that to her, but we felt that she was there for us as an actress, and that’s what we wanted her for. Gary did a pass on the script, and we had some more notes, and that was the process. You want to hear the laughs, you want to sense the tears, and you could. This isn’t the first adaptation of the classic story, but is it one that has always appealed to you? You’ll see it on TV or DVD, or if it happens to be showing at a festival and they ask you to visit, then you might revisit it, but usually, it’s an opening week of the movie or the premiere, you see it with an audience. It was an IP that I admired, and I was approached with it by Paul Perez, one of our producers but an executive at Warner Bros. at the time, where he was one of the people developing it. Some things were taken out for the first screening but went back in for the second screening, and the movie tested even higher.

Gloria Estefan and Andy Garcia play a married couple in the movie remake debuting on HBO Max on Thursday (June 16).

HBO Max is also free with select Crickett Wireless plans. The platform is packed with exclusive originals, hit movies, TV episodes, family-friendly programs and lots more. For example, AT&T customers can receive free HBO Max with select unlimited plans. The more expensive subscription also allows users to download up to 30 programs to watch-on the go and stream certain content in 4K UHD. Meanwhile, Billy and his wife, Ingrid (Estefan) are on the brink of divorce. All products and services featured are independently chosen by editors.

Father of the Bride, starring Andy Garcia and Gloria Estefan, lacks the heart and humor that this story needs.

While most of the humor in other versions centered on the father’s worry about the wedding, this Father of the Bride has to rely on other tactics for its humor, since Billy doesn’t exactly warrant this type of comedy. Similarly, Father of the Bride tries to forge its own path outside the previous two iterations of this story, while also attempting to pay homage to what worked so well in the past. In director Gaz Alazraki’s Father of the Bride—the third film adaptation of Edward Streeter’s 1949 novel of the same name—there is plenty of talk of tradition and breaking from the expectations of the past.

For the score to "Father of the Bride," Gaz Alazraki turned to Terence Blanchard, whose credits include "Da 5 Bloods" and "BlacKkKlansman."

If we had tried to play comedy into the score, I feel it would have ruined it. So the trick was to not play up the comedy but to have that music refer back to who this guy is. There was no need to play the comedy up there, especially with the daughter because she’s the most sympathetic character in the whole film. I worked with the music producer and talked to him about ideas for the musicians that would play in the orchestra. It was the first time I had had someone in the room while I was writing and playing with Gaz saying, “More like that.” When I first read the script, I was wondering if they wanted me to do a Latin-based score because the film has some great Latin artists.

This review of the HBO Max film Father of the Bride (2022) does not contain spoilers. The original Father of the Bride was a holiday staple in my house.

And yes, I know Charley Shyer’s Father of the Bride was a remake of the 1950 film starring Spencer Tracey and Elizabeth Taylor. Even Fronk Oz’s Dirty Rotten Scoundrels is a remake of the 1964 Marlon Brando vehicle, Bedtime Story. So, the entire thought process I have here shows my hypocrisy in remakes. (Garcia though was a member of a comedy troupe at The Comedy Store in the 1970s). The script by Matt Lopez (The Race to Witch Mountain) also folds in a modern update by switching tropes. The original Father of the Bride was a holiday staple in my house growing up. This Father of the Bride has the cojones to put enough spin on the story to make it its own. Where The Hustle, the “DRS” remake, was almost a carbon copy of the original.

The actor, who's playing the role onscreen and in reality, understands his rigid character: “He's an amalgamation of everybody I've ever known, ...

If you can stay on the menu, then you can provide for your family and explore your art form. If you’re fortunate, you might be the flavor of the month for a moment, but then you’ve got to keep yourself on the menu. [There was] a wedding on June 11, then the movie, and I have another wedding on July 9. He’s an amalgamation of everybody I’ve ever known, including myself, and the traditions of people who come from a conservative background. My father was very concerned about me leaving the family [fragrance] business, which I had worked in all my life and was growing rapidly. Yes. Growing up we spoke Spanish at home, but we also grew up in Miami, where everybody spoke Spanish. My children have had a harder time with it because no matter how much Spanish we spoke, they always favor English because of the environment. What was it like for you at the onset of your career? You were typecast and the parts they were writing for Hispanics were predominantly gang members and maids. It took a long time, from ’78 to ’85, to get a part that was integral to the story. Occasionally enhancing his anecdotes with words in Spanish, he spoke about his father’s thoughts on his profession, breaking ground before inclusion was a Hollywood priority, and staying on the entertainment industry “menu.” These are excerpts from our conversation. The comedy, from the director Gaz Alazraki and the screenwriter Matt Lopez, also manages to avoid depicting Latinos as a monolith. “If you come here and you work hard, there’s a future for you,” he said.

Since Cora has a bold fashion sense, Eselin incorporated touches like oversize pop art-esque buttons on the sides of the bridesmaid dresses — “a piece of fun ...

“At first, we built the dress without the sleeves because we knew that was going to be the end product,” Eselin says. Yet Eselin tinkered with puffed sleeves for the first iteration of the gown, sizing up different volumes. This time, Andy Garcia is the title character who must come to grips with the marriage of his daughter and is determined to pay for her wedding.

HBO Max's reboot, starring Andy Garcia and Gloria Estefan, proves this old storyline has some life left in it yet.

Alazraki is adept at showing the ways in which a Cuban family and a Mexican one might have some clashing values, even as those who aren’t from Hispanic or Latinx backgrounds might think, Everyone speaks Spanish, so what’s the problem? Garcia carries the film ably with his gruff elegance: it’s easy to buy him as a father who loves his daughters but who isn’t quite ready to let them be the people they need to be. And that’s just one reason we have a new version of Father of the Bride in 2022: as long as there are young women going off to get married, there are going to be fathers who have mixed feelings about seeing them go. (The earlier films inspired by the book were Vincente Minnelli’s 1950 version, starring Spencer Tracy and Elizabeth Taylor, and a 1991 adaptation directed by Charles Shyer, with Steve Martin and Diane Keaton.) Directed by Gary Alazraki (one of the creators of the of the Netflix Spanish-language series Club de Cuervos) and written by Matt Lopez, this Father of the Bride has a breezy charm. Neither of these developments pleases Billy, who seems frustrated that he can’t control everything in his orbit, including the personal lives of his kids. Andy Garcia plays Billy Herrera, a successful Miami architect who tells us, in the movie’s voiceover introduction and elsewhere, how as a young man he came to the United States from Cuba with nothing.