It Takes Two (1995 film)

Amanda Lemmon is a 9-year-old orphan, and she is about to be adopted by the Butkises, a family known to "collect" kids. She actually wants Diane Barrows, the orphanage caretaker, to adopt her instead. Diane would like to do so, but authorities will not let her because of her low salary and unmarried status. While at summer camp, Amanda meets a girl who looks just like her named Alyssa Callaway, who has come home from boarding school, only to find that her wealthy father and the camp's owner, Roger, is about to marry Clarice Kensington, an overbearing self-centered gold-digging socialite.

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 gets to experience summer camp, they get to know the other's parental figure and discover that Roger and Diane would be perfect for each other. Desperate to set them up, they arrange many meetings between them, hoping that they'll fall in love.

Roger and Diane do seem to hit it off upon meeting, as she is pleasantly surprised with his kind and humble nature despite his wealth, and he, with her help, is able to work up the courage to visit the camp again, which he has not done since his wife's death, due to the painful memories.

Upon having spied Roger and Diane laughing and swimming together in the lake one afternoon, Clarice manipulates Roger into moving the wedding up from the next month to the next day and Amanda, while posing as Alyssa, finds out that she plans on sending her off to boarding school in Tibet afterward. Meanwhile, Alyssa, while posing as Amanda, ends up being adopted by the Butkises without Diane's knowledge, and is taken away by child services. She then discovers the only reason the Butkises had adopted so many kids was to put them to work in their salvage yard for slave labor.

Roughly two hours before the wedding, Amanda proves to the family butler, Vincenzo, that she is not Alyssa. He visits Diane at the orphanage and tells her about the switcheroo. She arrives at the Butkises’ salvage yard via helicopter to pick up the real Alyssa and get her to the wedding. In the meantime, Vincenzo and Amanda work to stall it.

As Roger hesitates to say "I do," he recalls all the good times he had with Diane and realizes that he has fallen in love with her. All of a sudden, she bursts into the church with Alyssa behind her. At that moment, Roger confesses his love for her to Clarice, who furiously slaps him and tries to do the same to "Alyssa", blaming her for sabotaging their wedding, but is stopped by Vincenzo. As she storms down the aisle, the real Alyssa steps out from behind Diane, and Clarice claims it as a "conspiracy" that there are two Alyssas. She tries to take this new opportunity to slap her, but Diane steps forward in time, barking at her, "Back off, Barbie," and calmly informs her that she has something in her teeth. Humiliated, she moves to storm out of the church again, but Alyssa deliberately steps on her wedding gown, causing the skirt to rip off.

An incredulous Roger learns that Alyssa has been with Diane, while he had Amanda, all this time and it becomes apparent to them that the girls had orchestrated their meet-ups all along, about which they are extremely smug. After some encouragement from them, Roger and Diane share a kiss, and the four of them board a horse-drawn carriage, driven by Vincenzo, to take a ride through Central Park.

• 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. Amanda also especially likes her. She also wants to find love and thinks she might have a chance after meeting Roger.
• 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 home across the lake from it. He begins to have doubts about marrying Clarice after he meets Diane and they click.
• Ashley Olsen as Alyssa Callaway
• Mary-Kate Olsen as Amanda Lemmon
• Vincenzo (Philip Bosco) is the Callaways' butler, best friend, and right-hand man as well as a father figure to Alyssa since the day she was born.
• Clarice Kensington (Jane Sibbett) is a socialite and gold digger, the opposite of Diane. She dislikes children and baseball and only intends to marry Roger for his money. She also convinces him that Alyssa is too spoiled and gets away with bad behavior.
• Harry (Ernie Grunwald) and Fanny Butkis (Ellen-Ray Henessy) are Amanda's potential adoptive parents. Although she wants to be adopted, she dislikes them, having heard that they "collect kids" and will "take anybody" only to make them work in the salvage yard for slave labor. They have several "adopted" kids and a biological son, Harry, Jr. (Dov Tiefenbach).

• Won – Kids' Choice Award for Favorite Movie Actress (Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen)[2]
• 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]

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.[4]

Kevin Thomas from Los Angeles Times called the film "a predictable but fun romp."[5] Roger Ebert called it "harmless and fitfully amusing" with "numbingly predictable" plot and praiseworthy performances and rated it two out of four stars.[6]

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.[7]

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• It Takes Two at IMDb
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• It Takes Two at the TCM Movie Database
• It Takes Two at the American Film Institute Catalog