This month marks the 25th anniversary of the
release of Mrs. Doubtfire, the beloved comedy starring Robin Williams and
the most popular of his many films. Williams’ bravura, over-the-top performance
has to be ranked as his best film work overall, as well as his funniest,
matched only by his incredible voice work in the animated Disney feature
Aladdin two years earlier. Made on a $25
million budget, Mrs. Doubtfire grossed nearly $450 million worldwide. At the
fifty-first Golden Globes, the movie won the award for best musical or comedy
of the year and Williams won the best actor award.
At the time, although I liked the movie just fine, I didn’t
share the enthusiasm of the general public for some reason. I’m not sure why.
Maybe I felt it didn’t live up to the hype. More likely it was because I had
seen Robin Williams live a few times at San Francisco comedy clubs a few years
earlier, and his stand-up act was so hysterical that the movie performance
simply couldn’t compete. Maybe I was having a bad day. Who knows – it was
twenty-five years ago!
I had the opportunity to revisit Mrs. Doubtfire this past
weekend when it was shown as part of a program honoring Robin Williams at the
Alameda International Film Festival. I guess I could have just watched it as a
streaming movie at home but seeing any movie – especially a comedy – with a
live audience on a big screen is usually better. In fact, for a significant
portion of the audience last weekend, this was their very first exposure to the
movie. And they loved it. This time around, I loved it too. It really is a
classic film. And it has withstood the test of time pretty well, even though it’s
treatment of a few core issues, particularly transvestism, is a tad less
sensitive than our current enlightened standards would condone in a new movie.
The story, of course, is about a guy named Daniel Hillard
(Williams), an actor who works as a voice artist in San Francisco and is too
spontaneously funny for his own good. As the film gets under way, Daniel is in
the process of losing his job for not following the script. When he gets home
to his three kids that afternoon, pretty much the same thing happens. The
children - a teenage daughter, twelve-year-old son, and six-year-old daughter –
absolutely love their dad, who’s so much fun, almost like a kid himself. But
his act has worn thin with their mom/Daniel’s wife Miranda (Sally Field). She
is a successful interior decorator who is not only the primary breadwinner, but
also the only responsible adult in the family. She throws him out and starts divorce proceedings.
Cue the family law courtroom scene, where the judge, noting
Daniel’s status as an unemployed guy living in a tiny, unkempt apartment,
grants custody to Miranda, with “visitation” to Dad once a week on Saturday. This
is a real blow to a guy who absolutely adores being with his children. Miranda
starts hunting for a nanny to take care of the kids while she’s at work,
ignoring her husband’s plea to let him do this. This is when Daniel gets the
brilliant idea to apply for the job himself. Using his own talent as a voice
artist and the expertise of his brother Frank (Harvey Fierstein), a makeup
artist, the Scottish nanny Mrs. Euphegenia Doubtfire is born. She is a startling creation. It’s no wonder
that the film received an Oscar for best make-up.
To Miranda, Mrs. Doubtfire is a godsend: commanding,
efficient, soothing, homey, good with the children, charmingly old-fashioned.
To the rest of us she, and the situations she finds herself in, are hilarious.
Some of the humor is physical or visual, much of it springs from the inspired,
improvisational verbal ventriloquism of Robin Williams. At first, much seems to
go right with Daniel in his new incarnation. Eventually, inevitably, his house
of cards starts to collapse in ways both very funny and surprisingly touching,
even if a little schmaltzy.
It didn’t hurt that Chris Columbus, at the height of his
directorial powers, was at the helm of this movie. In the 1990s this guy was da bomb: creating good, entertaining, highly
profitable pictures. He started in the late 80s as a screenwriter with such
mainstream hits as Gremlins, The Goonies and Young Sherlock Holmes; then scored as a director with Adventures in Babysitting and the first
two Home Alone movies, before this
project; later going on to direct the first two Harry Potter flicks. He had great rapport with and respect for Williams.
To take advantage of Williams’ immense talent, Columbus filmed most comedic
scenes two ways: first the actors were required to stick strictly to the
script; then, several more takes were shot allowing Williams to improvise.
Whichever was funniest (often an improv take) stayed in the final cut.
It also didn’t hurt that there was a fine cast surrounding
Williams. A young-looking Sally Field (then 45 but looking ten years younger)
shines as Miranda. As the “grown-up” parent and the spouse who kicks out
Daniel, she could have come off as “the heavy”: a mean or witchy antagonist to
Williams’ protagonist; but instead she just seems well-meaning and sensible.
She’s not out to hurt Daniel, but
rather, just trying to do the right thing for her kids and for herself.
Before he became famous as the middle period James Bond (starting with Tomorrow Never Dies in 1997) Pierce Brosnan was primarily known for playing Remington Steele on TV for five years. Here he plays Stu, Miranda’s wealthy (and handsome) new beau, a catalyst for some of Mrs. Doubtfire’s funniest bits as Daniel tries to sabotage their relationship. Like Miranda herself, Stu never becomes a bad guy, notwithstanding Daniel’s jealousy, and in typical Brosnan fashion handles himself with suavity and aplomb. Tony award winning Harvey Fierstein is best known for the
play and film Torch Song Trilogy,
which he wrote and starred in on Broadway and on screen; and for writing the
book for the musical version of La Cage
aux Folles, for which he won another Tony. As Daniel’s brother Frank, his
warmth, gravelly voice and comic takes add to the lightness, especially in the
first half.
The three kids seem pretty perfect for their parts,
especially adorable six-year-old Mara Wilson [who went on to star as the titular character in the film version ofMatilda
(1996)]. And character actor Sydney Walker has a small but unforgettable part
as a sweet bus driver who takes a shine to Mrs. Doubtfire, seeing her as a fine
specimen of solid womanhood.
Ultimately, it’s Williams who carries the show. He’s on
screen for almost all of the film’s two-hour running time, as Daniel or in the
costume of Mrs. Doubtfire – for which he had to sit in make-up for something
like four hours each day – and a few times just with his voice. Mostly he is
just funny, really funny, laugh out
loud funny; but there also are moments where he stretches for emotional
sincerity. In the main, he’s pretty
effective in carrying it off. I have had a hard time, in several of Williams’
other films, feeling convinced by his attempts to convey deep emotion or
poignancy. He tries hard, but his physiognomy doesn’t seem built for that. It’s
like there’s always a mask hiding his inner self. But there are a couple of
scenes in Mrs. Doubtfire where he comes pretty close.
In 1993, I would probably have given the movie a B grade.
Today, it gets an A-, maybe even an A.
125 minutes PG-13
Grade: A-
Available on most
streaming services, such as Amazon, Vudu, iTunes and more; plus it is on dvd from
Netflix.
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