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Mrs. Doubtfire

 
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Mrs. Doubtfire

  • AMG Rating: starstarstar
  • Genre: Comedy
  • Movie Type: Comedy of Errors, Domestic Comedy
  • Themes: Gender-Bending, Custody Battles, Schemes and Ruses
  • Director: Chris Columbus
  • Main Cast: Robin Williams, Sally Field, Pierce Brosnan, Harvey Fierstein, Polly Holliday
  • Release Year: 1993
  • Country: US
  • Run Time: 125 minutes
  • MPAA Rating: PG13

Plot

Robin Williams learns that keeping in touch with his children can be a drag in this hit comedy. Daniel Hillard (Williams) is an eccentric actor who specializes in dubbing voices for cartoon characters. Daniel is a kind man and a loving father, but he's a poor disciplinarian and a shaky role model. After throwing an elaborate and disastrous birthday party for his son, Daniel's wife Miranda (Sally Field) reaches the end of her patience and files for divorce. Daniel is heartbroken when Miranda is given custody of the children, and he's only allowed to visit them once a week. Determined to stay in contact with his kids, Daniel learns that Miranda is looking for a housekeeper, and with help from his brother Frank (Harvey Fierstein), a makeup artist, Daniel gets the job disguised as Mrs. Iphegenia Doubtfire, a stern but caring Scottish nanny. Daniel pulls off the ruse so well that neither his ex-wife nor his children recognize him, and in the process, he learns how to be the good parent he should have been all along. However, Daniel also has to deal with the little matter of Miranda's new boyfriend, Stu (Pierce Brosnan). ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Review

Chris Columbus' Mrs. Doubtfire is one of Robin Williams' biggest hits, with more than 420 million dollars in worldwide receipts and status as a surefire ratings-getter whenever it is shown on network television. Not long after voicing the motormouth Genie in Aladdin, Williams takes his range even further as one of the most popular cross-dressing figures of all time, next to Dustin Hoffman in Tootsie and Dame Edna Everage. Once the audience concedes that a dense layer of makeup is enough to conceal Williams' identity from the people who know him best, his family, Mrs. Doubtfire takes off as a first-rate screwball comedy with impeccable timing and a handful of classic scenes. Especially memorable are Williams' attempts to bounce between dinners at two different tables, as two different people, in one restaurant, which involves numerous costume changes and some awkward fumbling with an uncooperative set of false teeth. Numerous such close shaves are the bread and butter of this movie, and Williams makes them work perfectly. Even if they strain credibility to the breaking point, the outcome easily justifies a full suspension of disbelief. Supporting players Sally Field, Harvey Fierstein, and Pierce Brosnan are all wonderfully cast. The comedy's soft underbelly of sentiment would preview some of Williams' more saccharine choices later in the 1990s, but did not sufficiently detract from the proceedings at this point. ~ Derek Armstrong, All Movie Guide
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Mrs. Doubtfire

Theatrical release poster
Directed by Chris Columbus
Written by Anne Fine (novel)
Randi Mayem Singer (screenplay)
Leslie Dixon (screenplay)
(uncredited) Robin Williams
Starring Robin Williams
Sally Field
Pierce Brosnan
Harvey Fierstein
Music by Howard Shore
Cinematography Donald McAlpine, ASC
Editing by Raja Gosnell
Distributed by 20th Century Fox
Release date(s) November 24, 1993
Running time 125 mins.
Country United States
Language English
Budget $25 million

Mrs. Doubtfire is a 1993 American comedy film starring Robin Williams and based on the novel Madame Doubtfire by Anne Fine. It was directed by Chris Columbus and distributed by 20th Century Fox. It won the Academy Award for Best Makeup.[1] The film was placed 67th in the American Film Institute's 100 Years, 100 Laughs: America's Funniest Movies (see the 100 Years Series), a list of the 100 funniest movies of the 20th century, and was also rated #39 on Bravo's 100 Funniest Movies of All Time. The original music score was composed by Howard Shore.

Contents

Plot

Daniel Hillard (Robin Williams) is an out-of-work voice actor. His wife Miranda (Sally Field), an interior designer, has reached the end of her patience with their marriage and seeks a divorce due to the two of them not having anything in common anymore. Since Daniel has no steady source of income, Miranda gets primary custody of their three children, 14-year-old Lydia Hillard (Lisa Jakub), 12-year-old Chris Hillard (Matthew Lawrence) and 5-year-old Natalie Hillard (Mara Wilson) and Daniel has visitation rights limited to Saturday evenings. The news is crushing to Daniel, who adores his children.

When Daniel learns that Miranda intends to place an advertisement for a housekeeper, he requests to pick them up from school and spend time with them. Daniel sabotages the ad that Miranda wrote, changing the numbers on the copy so he could be the only one who could call. He calls and presents the perfect applicant: a 60-year-old Englishwoman with a Irish accent with years of experience, giving the name "Mrs. Doubtfire". Miranda is impressed enough to have "Mrs. Doubtfire" come over to the house to interview for the position.

As Mrs. Doubtfire, Daniel is able to see his children every day, giving him the opportunity to be the firm father figure that he wasn't formerly, and the change begins to work as the children respond to Mrs. Doubtfire's methods.

Daniel's situation is not a perfect one, however, as he encounters several problems including igniting his fake breasts on a stove when cooking dinner, almost having his cover blown by his caseworker (Anne Haney) at his apartment, and attempting to stall his ex-wife's relationship with Stuart Dunmyer (Pierce Brosnan), her new boyfriend, who is not particularly fond of Daniel (and who has no idea that Daniel is disguised as Mrs. Doubtfire).

Daniel Hillard (Robin Williams) disguised as Mrs. Doubtfire (having just lost his dentures).

Eventually Daniel's cover is blown, as Chris walks in on him in the bathroom. He explains what he's done to Lydia and Chris, and tells them that they can't tell Miranda (due to the tense situation between them) or Natalie, as she is too young to understand and would tell her mother. Both children are happy to have their father back in their lives and agree to help maintain the pretense.

Meanwhile, at the TV station where Daniel works as a shipping clerk, his job situation is about to improve. The CEO of the television studio, Jonathan Lundy (Robert Prosky), sees him clowning with toy dinosaurs on the set of a children's program and is impressed enough to schedule a dinner meeting to hear his ideas. Trouble brews when Daniel learns that Stuart plans to celebrate Miranda's birthday by taking the family out to the same restaurant at the same time, and that everyone expects Mrs. Doubtfire to join them.

At the restaurant, Daniel attempts to rotate back and forth between Lundy and his family, using a restroom to change back and forth from himself to Mrs. Doubtfire. He succeeds for most of the evening, but his cover is blown when he administers the Heimlich maneuver to a choking Stuart and loses his mask in the process. Miranda is shocked and humiliated to find out that her housekeeper and her ex-husband are one and the same person; she then storms out.

Returning to court, Miranda receives full custody of the children as the judge is somewhat disturbed by Daniel's behavior. However, she experiences a change of heart upon realizing that her family is unhappy in the absence of Mrs. Doubtfire and therefore Daniel. She explains this to Daniel, and decides to let him take the kids for a few hours every day after school. In the final moments of the movie, Daniel picks the kids up to spend an afternoon with them while Miranda watches a Mrs. Doubtfire episode, where Mrs. Doubtfire says that no matter what type of living arrangement children of divorce may have, love will maintain the bond of family.

Cast

Soundtrack

The score was written by Howard Shore. The song Robin Williams sings at the cartoon voiceover in the beginning is "Largo al factotum". Other songs featured often were chosen referencing the identity of Mrs. Doubtfire. These songs include:

Additionally. these songs were featured:

Locations

Various locations in San Francisco were used for filming. Parts were shot at KTVU studios, in Oakland. The street signs for the intersection near the "Painted Lady" home, Steiner and Broadway, were visible on-screen. The exact address, 2640 Steiner Street 37°47′38.07″N 122°26′10.78″W / 37.7939083°N 122.4363278°W / 37.7939083; -122.4363278, became a tourist attraction for a while after the film's release[2]. Though the film's home exteriors were impressive, its interiors were all shot on the 20th Century Fox lot. Robin Williams' divorced father character 'Daniel', lived upstairs from Danilo Bakery at 516 Green St., and his children attended a school at Filbert and Taylor.

The uproarious restaurant scene was filmed in an actual upscale restaurant, Bridges Restaurant & Bar, in downtown Danville, California; Bridges is still in operation, but its interior has been dramatically renovated and no longer resembles the interior seen in the movie.

Box office

Box Office Revenue[3]
United States International Total
$219,195,243 $222,000,000 $441,195,243

Awards and honors

Academy Awards

  • 1993
    • Best Makeup (Greg Cannom, Ve Neill, Yolanda Toussieng)

Golden Globe Awards

BAFTA Awards

American Film Institute recognition

Sequel

Mrs. Doubtfire 2 was to be a sequel to the 1993 box office hit. Writing began in 2003 by Bonnie Hunt (Cheaper by the Dozen, Cars, Jumanji). Robin Williams was set to return in disguise as an old nanny like in the first movie. Due to problems with the script, re-writing began in early 2006 as Robin Williams was allegedly unhappy with the plot. The film was expected to be released in late 2007, but following further script problems the sequel was declared "scrapped" in mid-2006.

Recently in an interview for Newsday, Williams said the movie's sequel was indefinitely scrapped. Stating his reasons, he said, "The script they had just didn't work."[4]

Apparently, the sequel's story involved Williams as Mrs. Doubtfire moving close to his daughter's college so he could keep an eye on her.

On December 5, 2006, during an interview with BBC Radio 1 by DJ Edith Bowman, Williams said that if it's not going to be done right, then it's not worth doing and that there won't be a sequel with him in it. However, the character might return in some form some day in the future. The interview doesn't seem to have been recorded but was posted online almost immediately.[4]


Comparisons with book

During the conversion to film, most of the characters were moderated heavily. In the book, all the main characters, apart from Natalie, tend to act in self-interest and expect a large amount of credit whenever they do otherwise. The divorce of Miranda and Daniel in the book is also much more bitter.

Notes

See also

External links


Awards and achievements
Preceded by
The Player
Golden Globe: Best Motion Picture, Musical or Comedy
1993
Succeeded by
The Lion King

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