Robin Williams is a star whose status has remained bankable for many years, and in the 1993 film Mrs. Doubtfire, his standing rose to a peak of popularity.
Williams plays Daniel Hillard, a voice actor and carefree dad to three children, whom he wants to make sure are entertained at all times. This wouldn’t be a bad thing, except that he is immature and irresponsible in seeking that fun, which gets him in Dutch with hi wife, Miranda Hillard, played by Sally Field. When a birthday party for his son ends up involving a full-scale petting zoo at their opulent home, it is the last straw for Miranda. She asks him, “Am I the only one who feels there has to be rules?” and the answer does seem plain to see.
Miranda asks for a divorce and Daniel leaves the house without his family, and – coincidentally – without his job. It isn’t the first job he’s quit a job under protest, as Daniel has moral problems with kids’ entertainment being force-fed to children in a condescending or irresponsible way. Early in the movie we see Daniel improvising his voice-over of a cartoon character that is smoking a cigarette, and deeming it “morally irresponsible.” Daniel’s conscience is raised quickly and thus the reason for his unsteady employment.
Daniel tries reasoning with his wife to take him back, but when that looks less than promising, he turns to Plan B. He learns that his ex-wife is seeking a nanny and he enlists the help of his brother – a makeup artist – to make him over into an older woman. What they come up with is a dowdy and proper Scottish woman named Mrs. Doubtfire, the exact opposite of Daniel. Where Daniel’s faults were plain, Mrs. Doubtfire is a responsible, if still immature, person who enforces rules with the children and garners the respect of them, and Miranda.
Mrs. Doubtfire represents the first of the ‘bodysuit’ comedies (The Nutty Professor and Big Momma’s House are later examples) that became popular – at least among comedic actors – and it features some of the most prominent and visible San Francisco locales since Hitchcock presented Vertigo. There’s some great physical comedy here, and the film is climaxed by the denouement that takes place at a restaurant, where Daniel’s ruse as the frumpy nanny is confronted. This is hilarious, and pure comedic genius by Williams.
While there’s the usual dose of sentimentality that Williams has come to slather onto his movies all too generously, the comedy isn’t stifled. Daniel’s transformation is a bit hard to believe, but this is a family comedy and nobody said it was supposed to be realistic.
Mrs. Doubtfire is a movie that will stand the test of time for family comedy and remains a watershed for Robin Williams.
