Themes: Nothing Goes Right, Fathers and Sons, Runaways
Main Cast: Robin Williams, Billy Crystal, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Nastassja Kinski, Charlie Hofheimer
Release Year: 1997
Country: US
Run Time: 98 minutes
MPAA Rating: PG13
Plot
Two of the screen's most popular comic actors meet in this movie about two men brought together by unexpected circumstances. On the surface, Jack Lawrence (Billy Crystal) and Dale Putley (Robin Williams) wouldn't appear to have much in common. Jack is an efficient, serious-minded lawyer with a successful practice and a beautiful wife, Carrie (Julia-Louis Dreyfus). Dale is a very single performance artist given to dramatic mood swings and extreme overreaction to the sad state of his career. However, 17 years ago both men were involved with the same woman, Collette Andrews (Nastassja Kinski); she later had a son, Scott (Charlie Hofheimer), without being sure if Jack or Dale was actually the father. Collette chose to raise the boy on her own, but when Scott runs away from home and she can't track him down, she calls both Jack and Dale looking for help. It doesn't take long for the two men to discover that they're both looking for the same boy in the same places, and they decide to join forces, though their personalities don't get much more compatible the longer they hunt for Scott. Keep an eye peeled for a brief cameo by Mel Gibson and an appearance by the rock band Sugar Ray, shortly before their commercial breakthrough. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
Review
With Billy Crystal and Robin Williams starring, Ivan Reitman directing, Joel Silver producing, and frequent Crystal collaborators Lowell Ganz and Babaloo Mandel penning the script, it's difficult to figure out why critics hated Fathers' Day so much. Its worst sin is one of conventionality, and it's not even as blatant a practitioner as a dozen other superstar-driven comedies that have been a lot better received. But Fathers' Day was on the business end of such lambasting and it became something of a modern-day Ishtar. Williams and Crystal do play very familiar types -- Williams, a skittish eccentric, Crystal, a businesslike sarcastic -- but the script makes funny use of this odd couple-pairing often enough for it to work. The performances may reek of laurel resting, but for fans contented by familiarity, the actors develop a likeable chemistry. Watching the two dads navigate the underground punk rock scene is good for its share of goofy grins, especially those that result from seeing Mel Gibson with a face full of piercings. A secondary plot involving the disastrous search attempts of Nastassja Kinski's husband, a surprisingly comic Bruce Greenwood, is also grossly humorous. Fathers' Day has become a historical curiosity for pop music fans, as it captures the band Sugar Ray in the waning moments of their old-school, hardcore integrity. Fans will hardly recognize singer Mark McGrath, punked out and screaming his song lyrics. ~ Derek Armstrong, All Movie Guide
Daniel Dorrance - Art Director, Sheldon Kahn - Associate Producer, Michael Chinich - Casting, Bonnie Timmermann - Casting, Gordon A. Webb - Co-producer, Karyn Fields - Co-producer, Rita Ryack - Costume Designer, Albert M. Shapiro - First Assistant Director, Ivan Reitman - Director, Joel Kramer - Second Unit Director, Wendy Greene Bricmont - Editor, Sheldon Kahn - Editor, Daniel Goldberg - Executive Producer, Joe Medjuck - Executive Producer, Francis Veber - Executive Producer, James Newton Howard - Composer (Music Score), Thomas Sanders - Production Designer, Stephen H. Burum - Cinematographer, Ivan Reitman - Producer, Joel Silver - Producer, Lauri Gaffin - Set Designer, Gene S. Cantamessa - Sound/Sound Designer, Clark King - Sound/Sound Designer, Lowell Ganz - Screenwriter, Babaloo Mandel - Screenwriter
In the film, Collette Andrews (Kinski) gets two former lovers, cynical lawyer Jack Lawrence (Crystal) and lonely, suicidal writer Dale Putley (Williams) to help her search for her runaway teenage son Scott by telling each man that he is the father. When Jack and Dale run into each other and find out what's happening, they work together to find Scott and determine the identity of the actual father.
In South Africa, Fathers' Day was released as What's Up Pop's?, a title the distributor decided would be more appropriate for the local market. The name was subsequently changed to What's Up Pops? for DVD release, when they realized the apostrophe had been used incorrectly.
In 1991, a Hong Kong film called Daddy, Father, Papa, starring Sammo Hung and Anthony Wong, was released with the same synopsis as Fathers' Day.
