The film focuses on two lookalike girls who meet by chance in a summer camp. One is an orphan while the other a wealthy heiress. They decide to act as matchmakers for their respective parent figures.
Plot
Nine-year-old orphan Amanda Lemmon is being sought after by the Butkises, a reclusive and secretive family known to "collect" kids via adoption. However, she wants the likeable and warm-hearted Diane Barrows, her social worker, to adopt her instead. Unfortunately for Amanda, authorities will not let Diane adopt Amanda due to the former's low salary, unmarried status, and social worker position even though Diane wants to adopt Amanda.
While at a summer camp, Amanda meets a rich nine-year-old girl named Alyssa Callaway who looks just like her. Alyssa has just come home from boarding school, only to find that her wealthy widowed father and the camp's owner, Roger, is about to marry an overbearing, self-centered, gold-digging socialite named Clarice Kensington the following month.
Amanda and Alyssa soon become acquainted, each longing for the other's life and decide to switch places. While Amanda adapts to Alyssa's wealthy lifestyle and Alyssa experiences summer camp, they get to know the other's parental figure and realize that Roger and Diane would be perfect for each other. Desperate to set them up, the girls arrange many meetings between them, hoping that they will fall in love.
Roger and Diane seem to hit it off upon meeting, as she is pleasantly surprised with his kindness and humbleness despite his wealth, and Roger, with Diane's help, works up the courage to visit the camp again, which he has not done since his wife (Alyssa's mother) died due to painful memories of her untimely death when Alyssa was born.
After seeing Roger and Diane laughing and swimming together in the lake one afternoon, Clarice manipulates Roger into moving the wedding from the following month to the next day, and Amanda, while posing as Alyssa, discovers that Clarice plans on sending Alyssa to boarding school in Tibet afterwards. Alyssa then ends up being adopted by the Butkises without Diane's knowledge while posing as Amanda.
Right before the wedding, Amanda tells the Callaways' butler, Vincenzo, that she is not Alyssa. He visits Diane at the orphanage and informs her about the switch. Diane then goes to the Butkis residence to pick up the real Alyssa and get her to the wedding. However, nobody is there and one of the Butkises' neighbors tells Diane that the only reason why the Butkises adopted so many kids was to work them in their salvage yard as slaves. Enraged, Diane takes Roger's company helicopter to the salvage yard to reclaim Alyssa (disguised as Amanda) and threatens to report the Butkises to social services, giving their other seven adopted children hope for salvation. After the helicopter lands in Central Park, Diane and Alyssa steal a horse-drawn carriage to get to the wedding, while the coachman, who is on his break, yells angrily, "That's my horse!".
Vincenzo and Amanda try their best to stall the wedding. As Roger hesitates to say, "I do", he remembers the good times that he had with Diane and realizes that he has fallen in love with her and cannot marry Clarice. Suddenly, Diane bursts into the church with Alyssa behind her. At that moment, Roger confesses his love for Diane to Clarice, who furiously slaps him. Clarice tries to do the same to "Alyssa", blaming her for ruining the wedding, but is stopped by Vincenzo.
As Clarice storms down the aisle, the real Alyssa steps out from behind Diane. Clarice declares that there is a "conspiracy", thinking that there are two Alyssas. Clarice attempts to slap the real Alyssa but Diane steps forward in time, barking "Back off, Barbie" at Clarice, and calmly informs Clarice that she has something on her teeth. Humiliated, Clarice moves to storm out of the church again, but Alyssa deliberately steps on her wedding gown, causing it to rip off. This exposes Clarice's stockings and white panties in front of all the wedding guests, even those with cameras, causing her to desperately call for her father (who just laughs) and run away, trying to hide her panties from the flashing cameras.
An incredulous Roger learns that Alyssa has been with Diane while he had Amanda all this time, and they realize that the girls had orchestrated their meetups all along, about which they are extremely smug. After some encouragement from the girls, Roger and Diane share their first kiss. The coachman arrives and reveals to Vincenzo that Diane and Alyssa stole the carriage. To avoid having the coachman press charges for the theft, Roger buys the horse and carriage. Roger, Diane, Alyssa, and Amanda then board the horse-drawn carriage, driven by Vincenzo, to take a ride through Central Park.
Cast
Kirstie Alley as Diane Barrows, a likeable and warm-hearted social worker who takes care of the orphans at the East Side Children's Center in Manhattan. She especially loves Amanda and wants to adopt her, but does not make enough money to be allowed to do so. Amanda also especially likes her. Diane also wants to find love and thinks that she might have a chance after meeting Roger.
Steve Guttenberg as Roger Callaway, a very wealthy widower who owns Camp Callaway. He founded the camp with his late wife, Cathy, and resides in a mansion across the lake from it. Roger begins having doubts about marrying Clarice after meeting Diane and they click.
Ashley Olsen as Alyssa Callaway, Roger's daughter.
Mary-Kate Olsen as Amanda Lemmon, one of the orphans whom Diane takes care of.
Philip Bosco as Vincenzo, the Callaways' butler, best friend, and right-hand man, as well as a secondary father figure to Alyssa since the day she was born.
Jane Sibbett as Clarice Kensington, a socialite and gold digger, the opposite of Diane. She dislikes baseball and secretly, children, and only intends to marry Roger for his money. Clarice also convinces Roger that Alyssa is too spoiled and gets away with bad behavior.
Ernie Grunwald and Ellen-Ray Hennessy as Harry and Fanny Butkis, Amanda's potential adoptive parents who have a biological son, Harry Jr. (Dov Tiefenbach) and seven adopted children: Bubba, Bridget, Brenda, Bonnie, Billy, Bobby, and Ben. Although she wants to be adopted, Amanda dislikes them, having heard that they "collect kids" and will "take anybody". However, the only reason why the Butkises "adopted" so many kids is to make them work in their salvage yard as slaves.
Michelle Grisom as Carmen, Amanda's closest friend at the orphanage.
Desmond Robertson as Frankie, Amanda's friend at the orphanage who makes fun of her for being adopted by the Butkises.
Nominated – Nickelodeon Blimp Award for Favorite Movie Actress (Kirstie Alley)
Nominated – Young Artist Award for Best Performance by an Actress Under Ten (Ashley Olsen)[3]
Nominated – Young Artist Award for Best Performance by an Actress Under Ten (Mary-Kate Olsen)[3]
Reception
The film was released on November 17, 1995, in the United States and grossed $19.5 million.
The film received an 8% approval rating on review aggregator site Rotten Tomatoes, based on 24 reviews, with an average rating of 3.9/10. The site's consensus reads "Rob Base and DJ EZ Rock told us that It Takes Two to make a thing go right, but this unpleasant Olsen twins comedy proves that the opposite can also be true".[4] At Metacritic, which assigns a weighted average score out of 100 with reviews from mainstream critics, the film received an average score of 45 based on 12 reviews, indicating "mixed or average reviews".[5] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A" on an A+ to F scale.[6]
Kevin Thomas from Los Angeles Times called the film "a predictable but fun romp".[7]Roger Ebert called it "harmless and fitfully amusing" with "numbingly predictable" plot and praiseworthy performances and rated it two out of four stars.[8]
The website Parent Previews graded the film an overall B as a family-friendly one with "only a couple of bad words and a bit of child intimidation from the bad guys", and Rod Gustafson from that website called it "predictable" with a "happy ending" that children can enjoy.[9]
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