Mrs. Doubtfire
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| Mrs. Doubtfire | |
 Theatrical release poster |
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| Directed by | Chris Columbus |
|---|---|
| Written by | Anne Fine (novel) Randi Mayem Singer (screenplay) Leslie Dixon (screenplay) |
| 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 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 |
[edit] Plot
Daniel Hillard (Robin Williams) is an out-of-work voice actor. Miranda Hillard (Sally Field) has reached the end of her patience with their marriage, due to his irresponsibility and feels that they have nothing in common, so she feels that a divorce is the best way to go. Since Daniel has no steady source of income (as Miranda was the main breadwinner of the family), 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. The situation is made even more upsetting for him when Miranda attempts to minimize the time he is able to spend with the children by dropping them off late for visits and picking them up early.
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. The children are receptive, but Miranda nixes the idea. Daniel sabotages the ad, that Miranda wrote, changing the two phone numbers, so that he can be the only one, who can call Miranda. He calls Miranda several times, disguising his voice, while pretending to be various unsuitable applicants. He finally presents the perfect applicant: a 60-year-old englishwoman (although he speaks with a Scottish accent) with years of experience, giving the name "Mrs. Doubtfire" after reading the news headline "Police Doubt Fire Was Accidental". With the cosmetics skills of his brother, Uncle Frank Hillard (Harvey Fierstein), a makeup artist, his brother's partner, "Aunt" Jack Hillard, and his own acting talent, Daniel goes to the Hillard residence as Euphegenia Doubtfire. He uses his knowledge of his family's passions, bringing up storytelling to his youngest daughter, Natalie, and soccer to Chris, and so is quickly offered the job. 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. He initially has the children doing chores and homework, but still finds time to join them in their favorite activities, including reading stories, soccer, and bike rides. The difference shows in the children, and Miranda remarks that something about Mrs. Doubtfire is very familiar.
Daniel goes through a series of mishaps, including igniting his fake breasts on a stove when cooking dinner and attempting to stall his ex-wife's relationship with Stuart Dunmayer (Pierce Brosnan), her new boyfriend. One day, Stuart invites Miranda, Daniel and the kids to come swimming with him at a fancy resort pool. When Stuart criticizes the children's father by calling him a loser, Daniel secretly throws a lime at his head, then blames it on the bar staff, claiming that terrorists ran by, and that it was a "run-by fruiting", because of Stuart's alleged failure to tip them.
Daniel's cover is blown when Chris walks in on him standing at the toilet, urinating like a man; he then explains the situation to the two elder children, as Natalie wouldn't be able to keep such a big secret. Both children are happy to have their father back in their lives and agree to maintain the pretense. Daniel's double life ends when his two personalities are forced to come together. The CEO of the television studio, Jonathan Lundy (Robert Prosky), where Daniel works as a shipping clerk, sees him clowning with toy dinosaurs and is impressed enough to schedule a dinner meeting to hear his ideas. Miranda then invites Mrs. Doubtfire to dinner with Stuart and the family, at the exact same time and place as Daniel's business dinner. Daniel cannot cancel on either, so he changes clothes in the bathroom while going back and forth between his boss and his family, progressively getting more and more drunk and confused. Intending to get revenge on Stuart, Daniel sneaks into the restaurant kitchen and adds cayenne pepper to Stuart's prepared dish of jambalaya, to which Stuart is allergic. Upon consuming his food, Stuart begins to choke, forcing a guilty Daniel (as Mrs. Doubtfire), who didn't intend on Stuart choking, to perform abdominal thrusts on him to avert his death. Stuart is saved, but Daniel is exposed. During a particularly rough thrust, Daniel's mask is partially ripped off. Miranda is shocked, horrified, then furious to see that her housekeeper and her ex-husband are one and the same.
In family court, Daniel acts as his own attorney and confesses his need to be with his children, but the judge, although feeling sympathy for Daniel and realizing his need to be with his children, finds Daniel's behavior somewhat disturbing, and custody is awarded solely to Miranda. Furthermore, Daniel's visitation rights are further restricted, as the judge only allows him to see his children with supervision from a court liaison, as well as ordering him to seek psychological counseling. His ruling makes Miranda very, very upset, as she realizes how much he loves the children and how far he would go just to be with them. Miranda and the children all miss Daniel very badly, and one day they see Aunt Euphegenia's House, a new children's TV show, starring Daniel as Mrs. Doubtfire, which was created after Jonathan was inspired by Daniel's uncanny portrayal of her in the restaurant. This evidence leads Miranda to have the restricted visitation rights overturned and renegotiate the terms of custody with Daniel and establish a joint custody arrangement, since they still have feelings for each other. Miranda will not seek a housekeeper/ caretaker while she is at work in the afternoons, instead arranging for the children to spend that time with Daniel. The film concludes with Daniel picking up his kids, and Miranda smiling while watching an episode of Aunt Euphegenia's House, featuring advice to children of divorced parents, saying that no matter what type of family living arrangement children have, love will maintain the bond.
[edit] Cast
- Robin Williams as Daniel Hillard / Mrs. Euphegenia Doubtfire
- Sally Field as Miranda Hillard
- Pierce Brosnan as Stuart "Stu" Dunmayer
- Harvey Fierstein as Uncle Frank Hillard
- Polly Holliday as Gloria Chaney
- Lisa Jakub as Lydia "Lydie" Hillard
- Matthew Lawrence as Christopher "Chris" Hillard
- Mara Wilson as Natalie "Nattie" Hillard
- Robert Prosky as Jonathan Lundy
- Anne Haney as Mrs. Sellner
- Scott Capurro as "Aunt" Jack Hillard
- Martin Mull as Miranda's Partner at Work
- Todd Williams as Todd the Bartender (cameo)
- William Newman as Mr. Sprinkles the Postman (before they had a dinosaur show, which was replaced by Daniel's show)
- [[]] as Lou
- [[]] as The Judge
- [[]] as Tony
- [[]] as Grandma Hillard
- [[]] as Bus Driver
- [[]] as Ron (cameo)
- [[]] as Thug (cameo)
- [[]] as Waiter
- [[]] as
- [[]] as
[edit] 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:
- "Dude (Looks Like A Lady)" performed by Aerosmith
- "Walk Like A Man" performed by The Four Seasons
- "Luck Be A Lady" performed by Frank Sinatra
- "Papa's Got A Brand New Bag" performed by James Brown
Additionally. these songs were featured:
- "Jump Around" performed by House of Pain
- "Stormy Monday Blues" performed by B. B. King and Albert Collins
[edit] Locations
Various locations in San Francisco were used for filming. 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, 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.
[edit] Box office
| Box Office Revenue[3] | |||
| United States | International | Total | |
| $219,195,243 | $222,000,000 | $441,195,243 | |
[edit] Awards and honors
- 1993
- Best Makeup (Greg Cannom, Ve Neill, Yolanda Toussieng)
American Film Institute recognition
- 2000 AFI's 100 Years... 100 Laughs #67
[edit] 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]
[edit] 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.
[edit] Notes
- ^ http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0107614/awards
- ^ Shot on This Site, William A. Gordon, Citadel, 1995, p.39.
- ^ "Mrs. Doubtfire (1993)". Box Office Mojo. http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?page=main&id=mrsdoubtfire.htm. Retrieved on 2007-05-17.
- ^ a b Brunton, Richard (2006-12-05). "Williams says no Mrs Doubtfire 2". Filmstalker. http://www.filmstalker.co.uk/archives/2006/12/williams_says_no_mrs_doubtfire.html. Retrieved on 2007-06-02.
[edit] See also
- Cross-dressing in film and television
- Avvai Shanmughi, the 1996 re-make in Tamil
- Chachi 420, the 1998 re-make in Hindi
- Divorce
[edit] External links
 |
Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Mrs. Doubtfire |
- Mrs. Doubtfire at the Internet Movie Database
- Mrs. Doubtfire at the TCM Movie Database
- Mrs. Doubtfire at Allmovie
- Movie stills
| Awards and achievements | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by The Player |
Golden Globe: Best Motion Picture, Musical or Comedy 1993 |
Succeeded by The Lion King |
| Preceded by Addams Family Values |
Box office number-one films of 1993 - 1994 (US) November 28, 1993 - December 5, 1993 January 9, 1994 January 30, 1994 |
Succeeded by Wayne's World 2 |
| Preceded by The Pelican Brief |
Succeeded by Philadelphia |
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| Preceded by Philadelphia |
Succeeded by Ace Ventura: Pet Detective |
|
| Preceded by Manhattan Murder Mystery |
Box office number-one films of 1994 (UK) January 30, 1994 |
Succeeded by Wayne's World 2 |
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