Father of the Bride Part II

Having scored an unexpected hit with their bland update of the Minnelli classic Father of the Bride (1950), the production team of Charles Shyer and Nancy Meyers knew where to go for inspiration for the sequel: Father's Little Dividend (1951), wherein pa becomes a granddaddy. The result's a collection of feelgood clichés advertising the benefits of a massive house, children and grandchildren, beige furnishings and a racing green sportster. The narrative has to conjure up obstacles to Martin's happiness (a nastily caricatured Arab buys the family nest, then spouse Keaton and daughter Williams fall pregnant at the same time) before resolving them all in a multiple-childbirth finale. Martin has nothing to work with, and mugs away thoughtlessly; Keaton strains credibility in the cushion-up-the-jumper role; while the ill-used Short is the family's design adviser, an egregious camp stereotype, vowel-strangler and master of Viennese frippery. Very unexciting.