Movie Review ... "It Takes Two"

It Takes Two (1995)

It Takes Two is a 1995 film starring Kirstie Alley, Steve Guttenberg and Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen. The movie title was taken from the song "It Takes Two", song by Marvin Gaye and Kim Weston, which was featured in the closing credits.

It Takes Two boasts some similarities to Walt Disney's The Parent Trap and Mark Twain's The Prince and the Pauper, which was pointed out in Leonard Maltin's review of the film.

Plot

Two unrelated young girls who happen to look identical suddenly meet. Amanda Lemmon (Mary-Kate Olsen) is an orphan, and she is about to be adopted by the Butkisses, a family whom she doesn't like. She actually wants her child-loving case worker Diane Barrows (Kirstie Alley) to adopt her instead. She would like to do so, but authorities will not let her because of her low salary. Alyssa Callaway (Ashley Olsen) is coming home from her boarding school's piano recital competition, only to find that her wealthy father Roger (Steve Guttenberg) is about to marry Clarice Kensington (Jane Sibbett) a socialite who (secretly) hates kids and baseball, which Roger adores.

The girls switch places and find out that Roger and Diane would fit together perfectly. So they arrange "chance" meetings with the desired result: they fall in love with each other. After some turbulences, Alyssa (who poses as Amanda) ends up being adopted by the Butkisses. She and Diane (while looking for Alyssa) find out the only reason they have adopted so many kids was for them to work in their salvage yard.

When Clarice secretly spies on Roger and Diane, she decides to move up the wedding from the next month to the next day. After Amanda, who poses as Alyssa, proves to the family butler Vincenzo (Philip Bosco) who she really is at the church, he summons to have the real Alyssa picked up from the Butkisses' salvage yard to stall the wedding. Once she and Diane show up, Roger stops the wedding and tells Clarice that he fell in love with Diane. Furious, she slaps him and prepares to do the same to both Amanda and Alyssa but is stopped by both Vincenzo and Diane. She storms out, embarrassed. Alyssa embarrasses her even more by stepping on her dress, causing the skirt to rip off, revealing her underwear in front of everybody, including people with cameras. Roger and Diane both find out in the end that it was Amanda and Alyssa that arranged all the meetings between the two of them the entire time.

Characters

• Amanda Lemmon (Mary-Kate Olsen) is an orphan girl. She loves to play stickball. She has the idea for herself and Alyssa to switch places for a couple of days.
• Alyssa Callaway (Ashley Olsen) is a rich girl and the only child of Roger Callaway, the owner of Camp Callaway, the summer camp for the orphans. She is a prize-winning pianist and an equestrian. She thinks her father's fiancee, Clarice, seems nice until she overhears her saying rude things about the house and her mother. She attends Camp Callaway after she switches places with Amanda.
• Roger Callaway (Steve Guttenberg) is a very wealthy widower. He owns Camp Callaway, which he founded with his late wife, and currently resides in a large vacation home across the lake from it. He begins to have doubts about marrying Clarice after he meets Diane and they click.
• Diane Barrows (Kirstie Alley) is a social worker who takes care of the orphans. She especially loves Amanda and would like to adopt her but does not make enough money to be allowed to do so. Alyssa also especially likes her. Diane also wants to find love and thinks she might have a chance after meeting Roger.
• Clarice Kensington (Jane Sibbett) is a socialite and a gold digger, the opposite of Diane. She hates kids and baseball and only wants to marry Roger for his money. She also convinces him that Alyssa is too spoiled and gets away with bad behavior.
• Vincenzo (Philip Bosco) is Roger's butler, best friend, and right-hand man as well as a father figure to Alyssa since the day she was born.
• Harry (Ernie Grunwald) and Fanny Butkis (Ellen-Ray Henessy) are Amanda's potential adoptive parents. Although she wants to be adopted, Amanda dislikes them, having heard that they "collect kids" and will "take anybody". A meeting with them does not change her mind. They have several multiracial, multiethnic adopted children and a biological son, Harry, Jr. (Dov Tiefenbach).
• Carmen (Michelle Crisom), Amanda's camp friend and fellow orphan.
• Frankie (Desmond Robertson), Amanda's camp friend and fellow orphan who makes fun of Amanda being adopted by the Butkis.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/It_Takes_Two_%281995_film%29