Son In Law (1993)

Film and Plot Synopsis

Comedian Pauly Shore returns with another comedy. This time, Shore plays Crawl, a college student at the University of Los Angeles who is crazy, unpredictable, and wild. Crawl befriends Rebecca “Becca” Warner, a farm girl from a small town in South Dakota. When Becca returns home from college for the Thanksgiving holiday, she drags her platonic friend Crawl with her. However, when Becca’s former high school flame attempts to propose to her unexpectedly, Becca and Crawl create a faux engagement between them. Now, Crawl must win over his “fiancé’s” family while also winning the heart of the girl he cares for, Becca.

‘Son In Law’ Movie Summary

Rebecca “Becca” Warner (Carla Gugino) is a wholesome teenage girl who lives with her family in a small town in South Dakota. Wanting to expand her horizons, Becca decides to attend college at the University of Los Angeles in California. She leaves behind her high school boyfriend Travis (Dan Gauthier) and travels west with her parents, Walter and Connie Warner (Lane Smith and Cindy Pickett). Once on campus, Becca and her parents meet Crawl (Pauly Shore), who is the residential advisor to Becca’s coed dormitory. Walter and Connie do not like Crawl but wish their daughter well and head back to South Dakota.

Initially, the vastly different culture is a shock to Becca who considers leaving school and returning home to her family. However, Crawl talks her out of such a drastic measure. Over the course of the fall semester, Crawl and Becca become good friends as Becca begins to open up to a world of possibilities that she never considered in her small-town life. Becca cuts and dyes her hair and even gets a tattoo on her ankle. As the Thanksgiving break approaches, Becca asks Crawl to travel with her to South Dakota to spend the holiday with her family, as he has no one to spend it with.

When Becca and Crawl arrive in South Dakota, Becca’s radically changed appearance and attitude are somewhat off-putting to her parents and Travis. Additionally, no one appears to like or understand Crawl who adapts to the culture shock better than Becca’s family and friends. On the first night home at dinner, Becca realizes that Travis is preparing to propose marriage to her and becomes nervous as she is not ready to get married. In a panic, she urges Crawl to interrupt the proposal and to speak to everyone. Suddenly thrown into the spotlight of Becca’s family, Crawl informs everyone that he has already proposed to Becca and that she has accepted. Becca’s family are quite upset about the news and begin to dislike Crawl even more. Travis responds by punching Crawl in the face.

After the dinner, Becca confronts Crawl about his lie, who apologizes but states that he was under pressure. Rather than reveal Crawl’s deceit, Becca decides to play along as if they were engaged for the trip. Crawl pretends that he is the future son-in-law to the Warners and expresses an interest in learning how to farm. Walter and his farmhand Theo (Dennis Burkley) attempt to teach Crawl something, but Crawl using ends up making a mess of things. Theo even goes out of his way to insult or embarrass Crawl. However, Crawl eventually proves himself to be a capable farmer by applying some of his laid-back attitudes towards each task.

Travis, it really tweaks my melon, to see a buff bro like Crawl here, get weezed on by a greasy scumbag like you. So you just chill. Walter Warner Sr. (Mason Adams)

Over the course of the break, however, Crawl begins to win over some of the members of the Warner family. Crawl impresses Becca’s little brother Zack (Patrick Renna) with his computer skills. As a result, Zack begins to see Crawl as a big brother since he is one of the few people to understand Zack’s interests. Crawl also frequently compliments Connie’s appearance and as a result, helps to bring her out of her shell which makes her more alluring to Walter. Further, when Walter’s father, Walter Sr. (Mason Adams) has a heart attack, Crawl performs CPR which saves the elder Warner’s life. The act of heroism earns Walter’s trust despite his misgivings about the faux engagement.

Not long after, Crawl is shopping for clothes in town and meets Becca’s friend Tracy (Tiffani-Amber Thiessen). He also encounters Travis who apologizes for hitting him. Travis’ tells Crawl that he would like to make amends with Crawl and offers to throw him a bachelor party. That night, at the party, Tracy and Theo attend and Tracy dances for Crawl. The next morning, Becca finds Crawl and Tracy asleep together in the barn. Becca is furious and feels betrayed and calls off the non-existent wedding even though she and Crawl were becoming more romantic. Strangely, neither Crawl or Tracy can remember what happened the night before or how they got back to the Warner’s farm.

A short time later, Crawl packs to head back to Los Angeles alone as the Warner family are generally upset with him. At the same time, Travis and Tracy get into a fight about what Tracy did the previous night as the two of them have been having a fling while Becca was away. When Tracy returns to her car, she finds that her car seat is suspiciously left all the way back and bottle of pills underneath the driver’s seat.

Crawl attempts to hitchhike his way to the airport, and Tracy picks him up and takes him back to the Warner house. Tracy confronts Travis and Theo who are sitting down to eat Thanksgiving dinner with the Warners. Theo caves and confesses that he and Travis drugged both Crawl and Tracy and set them up in a staged tryst to break up Becca and Crawl. Walter immediately fires Theo, but Travis remains defiant. Becca stands up to Travis, and Crawl, who has taken karate classes in college, knocks him down.

In the aftermath, Travis and Theo leave after being insulted by Walter Sr. The Warners invite Tracy to join them for Thanksgiving dinner. Walter asks his future son-in-law to cut the turkey. Becca feels guilty for their deceit and starts to reveal that she and Crawl are not engaged. However, she is interrupted by Crawl who states that they have not yet decided on a wedding date and need to wait a while before deciding. The film ends with a strong hint that Crawl and Becca will have a real romantic relationship with each other.