Mrs. Doubtfire
| Mrs. Doubtfire | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Directed by | Chris Columbus |
| Written by | Anne Fine (novel), Randi Mayem Singer (screenplay) |
| Starring | Robin Williams Sally Field Pierce Brosnan Harvey Fierstein |
| Distributed by | 20th Century Fox |
Release dates | November 24, 1993 |
Running time | 125 minutes |
| Language | English |
Mrs. Doubtfire is a 1993 comedy film based on the novel Alias Madame Doubtfire by Anne Fine. It was directed by Chris Columbus and distributed by 20th Century Fox.
This film is number 39 on Bravo's 100 Funniest Movies and number 10 on five's Greatest Ever Comedy Movies. It is also number 67 on the American Film Institute's list of the 100 Funniest American Movies. The film is rated PG-13 for some sexual references.
Cast
- Daniel Hillard/Mrs. Euphegenia Doubtfire – Robin Williams
- Miranda Hillard – Sally Field
- Lydia Hillard – Lisa Jakub
- Christopher 'Chris' Hillard – Matthew Lawrence
- Natalie Hillard – Mara Wilson
- Uncle Frank Hillard – Harvey Fierstein
- Aunt Jack Hillard – Scott Capurro
- Stuart Dunmeyer – Pierce Brosnan
- Gloria Chaney – Polly Holliday
- Jonathan Lundy – Robert Prosky
Plot
Outline
The story takes place in the city of San Francisco. Robin Williams plays Daniel Hillard, an out-of-work actor with extraordinary imitative skills, whose interior decorator spouse Miranda (played by Field) wants a divorce. Since Daniel has no steady source of income, Miranda gets primary custody of their three children (Lydia, Chris and Natalie) and Daniel has only limited visitation rights. Miranda places an advertisement for a housekeeper and gets a surprising response – a large number of unsuitable applicants. Daniel had decided that the best way to spend more time with his children is to become the ideal housekeeper. He first makes it difficult for Miranda by pretending to be the "unsuitable applicants" over the telephone (not to mention sabotaging the ad Miranda wrote so that he was the only one who could apply) and finally presenting the perfect applicant, giving the name "Mrs. Doubtfire" after reading the news headline "Police Doubt Fire Was Accidental". With the cosmetics skills of his brother, his brother's colleague, and his own acting talent, Daniel goes to the Hillard residence as Euphegenia Doubtfire and 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 before the divorce. The difference shows in the three children, and Miranda remarks one night that something about Mrs. Doubtfire is very familiar.
Book content
Content of the Book: Alias Madame Doubtfire by renowned British children's author Anne Fine.
Daniel Hilliard’s ex wife, Miranda, will not let him see enough of his three children. Their relationship is thoroughly destroyed. His creative idea, because he is an out of work actor, is to impersonate a woman and get himself hired.
Daniel is funny, timid with Miranda, who is a director of a large store, jealous of successful actors and, he comes to understand, selfishly irresponsible. He is a sensitive father but was not as sensitive a husband.
As Madame Doubtfire, he is a giant of a woman with a turban on the head, kilos of makeup on the face, lacquered nails and a strange masculine voice and masculine behaviour. When his ex wife is not around he is content to smoke, scratch a hairy leg and watch the children clean the house for him.
The children - Lydia and Chris are rebellious but Natalie, the youngest, is adorable. Lydia is mainly amused that Madame Doubtfire is in her home, Chris is mainly anxious, and Natalie resolves her confusion by regarding Madame Doubtfire and her father as separate people.
Their mother, when we first hear about her, is bad and sending a heartless message to her son when the cat kills his hamsters. It is later revealed how troubled her marriage was, how exhausting her work is and how hard it is to be a single parent. She also is not very clever, or Daniel's masquerade would not have been so long. But two of the children knew who she was - the new housekeeper shares Daniel's passion for gardening and his touch with meatloaf. She has the same name, how one of the children remembers, as a character Daniel once played.
The story is told by more points of view of, also from the youngsters. The narration shifts almost from paragraph to paragraph. The reader is sometimes told what different characters are thinking - but much more comes from Daniel's point of view than anyone else's. It might have been a better book for children if it had been told entirely from a child's point of view.
In the end, after Miranda has discovered Daniel's deception and there has been one more terrible fight, the parents, chastised by the children, share a tender moment in which both admit mistakes and arrangements are made for Daniel to see the children more.
Ending
Daniel's cover is blown when Chris walks in on him standing at the toilet;he then explains the situation to the two elder children, explaining that Natalie would not be able to keep such a big secret. Both children are happy to have their father back in their lives.
The deceit is then revealed to Miranda one evening when Mrs. Doubtfire is dining out with the Hillard family on the same night that Daniel is at dinner with the executive producer at his new job in a television studio. Intending to get revenge on Stuart, Miranda's new boyfriend, Daniel sneaks into the restaurant kitchen and adds cayenne pepper to which Stuart is allergic. Upon consuming his food Stuart begins to choke, forcing a guilty Daniel under the Mrs. Doubtfire guise to perform abdominal thrusts on him to avert his demise. During a particularly rough thrust, Daniel's mask is partially ripped off, revealing his true identity. Afterward, Daniel apologises to Stuart for the incident.
In family court, Daniel confesses his need to be with his children, but custody is awarded wholly to Miranda. She and the children all miss Daniel and one day they see "Aunt Euphegenia's House", a new children's TV show of which Daniel (as Mrs. Doubtfire) is the star. This evidence allows Miranda to re-negotiate the terms of custody with Daniel, and although there are lingering hard feelings between the two of them, they agree to stop arguing and work together for the sake of their children and come to terms with an amicable joint custody arrangement. 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 movie ends with Miranda watching an episode of "Aunt Euphegenia's House" that features advice to children of divorced parents.
Proposed alternate ending
According to Williams, the studio had wanted the parents to be reunited in the final reel, but he, Field, and Columbus resisted this, thinking it too unrealistic and likely to give false hope to the children of divorced parents.
Also, Field and Williams gained an intense dislike towards each other during the movie, partially because of Williams lack of professionalism, according to Field. The two found it to be an insult for the characters to be reunited, and used that in addition to the unrealistic aspect to avoid the ending as planned.
Accent
The character Mrs. Doubtfire claims to be from England in the movie, but she speaks with a mostly Scottish accent throughout the film. However, Stu (Pierce Brosnan) does say to Mrs. Doubtfire (Robin Williams) that her accent sounds "a little muddled", as he, having a home in London, knows what a proper English accent should sound like (Mrs. Doubtfire returns the comment with "Well, so is your tan."). Therefore, Mrs. Doubtfire's accent is hardly English-sounding, and the movie does make a point of this. In the Director's Commentary on the DVD of the film, Chris Columbus tells of a scene that was improvised by Williams and Brosnan but was cut from the film. The scene began with Brosnan's character suggesting that Mrs. Doubtfire's accent was "muddled". Brosnan then suggested places in Scotland as to where Mrs. Doubtfire was from and as he said the place names, the Doubtfire accent became thicker and thicker becoming an unintelligble Scottish drawl by the end of the scene. It was cut because Columbus felt that it spoiled the Doubtfire illusion.
Box Office
Domestic: $219,195,243
+ Foreign: $222,000,000
= Worldwide: $441,195,243
Sequel
Recently in an interview for Newsday Robin Williams said the movie's sequel was indefinitely scrapped. Stating his reasons, he said, "The script they had just didn't work." [1]
Apparently the script involved Williams as Mrs. Doubtfire moving close to his daughter's college so he can keep an eye on her. Bonnie Hunt had written the script.
Since then, IMDb has updated the movie's status to: 'If all goes to plan shooting is set to begin late January or early February 2007' [2], perhaps indicating that the movie is back on.
But, according to letters, currently there are talks meaning of a sequel; meaning that IMDb might be true.
On 5th December 2006 during an interview with BBC Radio 1, when 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. [3]
See also
- Once Upon a Girl
- Arrested Development, on which the movie is parodied with the character "Mrs. Featherbottom"
- KTVU
- "Simpsoncalifragilisticexpiala(Annoyed Grunt)cious" an episode of the television series The Simpsons. In it, the character Homer thinks a possible nanny is actually a man, using the fact he saw "Mrs. Doubtfire" to justify this line of thought, and scares her away.
- Cross-dressing in film and television