A genuine cinematic treasure, Father of the Bride finds Spencer Tracy delivering what I would deem his finest performance.

| Original Score: 4/4 | Sep 9, 2023

What it needs - and never finds - is a few extraordinarily eccentric personas and some slapstick to even out the customariness of matrimonial stresses and wedding-day chaos.

| Original Score: 5/10 | Aug 18, 2020

Spencer Tracy underplays the comedy to good effect, and Joan Bennett and Elizabeth Taylor are beautiful and efficient.

| Jul 29, 2019

Old-fashioned, star-studded, father-daughter comedy.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Apr 19, 2016

One of the best comedies MGM made in the 1950s.

| Original Score: 4/4 | Mar 23, 2011

Under Vincente Minelli's crisp direction, the fun rarely lets up.

| Mar 23, 2011

This ostensibly lighthearted film about Spencer Tracy's Kafkaesque attempts to bring off his daughter's wedding is one of the bleakest films of a bleak decade.

| Mar 23, 2011

Spencer Tracy gives a wonderful, Oscar-nominated performance in the titular role of this popular Minnelli- MGM comedy, which reflected the zeitgeist of post-WII America.

| Original Score: B+ | Mar 8, 2011

On the critical side: Minnelli could have timed many of the scenes so that laughs would not have stepped on dialog tag lines.

| Mar 26, 2009

Nightmarish comedy, about the hunt for a wealthy husband and an expensive wedding.

| Aug 8, 2008

Full Review | Original Score: 5/5 | Jul 29, 2007

Thoroughly enchanting comedy about the trials and tribulations a middle-aged family man faces when the daughter he dotes on decides to get married.

| Jan 26, 2006

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Nov 16, 2004

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Oct 6, 2004

First rate Hollywood comedy, with good support from its stars and Elizabeth Taylor at her loveliest.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Mar 10, 2004

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Mar 4, 2004

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Feb 20, 2004

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Oct 10, 2003

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Jun 5, 2003

Tracy is at his comic best in the title role -- the father torn by jealousy, devotion, pride and irritation as the problems mount in the run-up to his daughter's wedding.

| May 24, 2003