MRS. DOUBTFIRE: Blu-Ray (20th Century-Fox 1993) Fox Home Video

Chris Columbus’ Mrs. Doubtfire (1993) is rather transparent in its gender-bending mishmash of every angst-ridden cliché from the androgynous closet of oddities. As here we have a story of a straight man, Daniel Hillard (Robin Williams) donning a dress in his endeavors to be near his estranged children, Lydia (Lisa Jakub), Chris (Matthew Lawrence), and, the impossibly saccharine-riddled, Natalie (Mara Wilson) after his ex-wife, Miranda (Sally Fields) absolutely bars him from their company, Columbus, and his screenwriters, Randi Mayem Singer and Leslie Dixon simply cannot resist the urge to link this ‘unusual’ behavior to the homosexual ‘other’ world – herein, depicted by playfully naïve gay couple, Harvey Fierstein and Scott Capurro, awkwardly referenced in the writing as Uncle Frank and Aunt Jack. It’s meant to be funny – not! Mrs. Doubtfire represents Hollywood’s first insincere effort to revive the man-in-drag comedy, previously brought to its full-flourish in Sydney Pollack’s infinitely more intelligent-by-design, Tootsie (1982).  Yet, despite the brilliance of Robin Williams’ ‘think-off-the-cuff’ rapid-fire comedic genius, Mrs. Doubtfire seems, on more than one occasion, to be sincerely straining for its laughs. Indeed, in the editing process, Columbus actually sacrificed a lot of that genius, cutting out moments that were genuinely funny – like Williams’, as Daniel’s alter ego, Euphegenia Doubtfire, encouraging Gloria (Polly Holliday), the neighbor who otherwise detested him as a man, to sprinkle her prized garden with a ‘winkle’ of cat piss to make the blooms grow, knowing for certain the toxicity of the urine will kill them instead. Likely deleted for its overt vindictiveness, the sequence is otherwise pretty hilarious and would have added immensely to the ‘charm’ of the piece. But no, Mrs. Doubtfire becomes increasingly focused on the uninspired burgeoning romance between Miranda and wealthy playboy, Stuart Dunmeyer (Pierce Brosnan).  

More than 30-minutes of Williams’ comedy genius, misjudged as extemporaneous, was left on the cutting room floor by the time Mrs. Doubtfire hit theaters, the Singer/Dixon screenplay going for that 20-second guffaw instead, rather than the more reserved and sustaining warm-hearted chuckle. But this footage, mercifully reinstated as ‘deleted scenes’ is cause for celebration, and, in fact, represents incidents far more rewarding than much of what was left in the picture after the chop-shop editing of its run time was completed. As it remains today, Mrs. Doubtfire comes across as a quaintly ridiculous premise at best, rather than a momentously hilarious gem in Robin Williams’ court jester’s crown. Nevertheless, and largely on the merits of Williams’ fame and finesse, the picture earned a whopping $441.3 million worldwide at the box office on its relatively minuscule $25 million outlay. Curiously, such success did not necessitate Fox to consider a sequel. Much of Mrs. Doubtfire was shot by cinematographer, Donald McAlpine in and around San Francisco, with a few minor inserts lensed at 2oth Century-Fox and also, television station KTVU in Oakland, California. The locations are, in fact, a main character in the picture – the cosmopolitan feel of the Hillard’s cozy, but fashionable home, lending greatly to the atmospheric fuzzy ‘feel good’ that permeates. Alas, it is the script that chronically lets everyone down – particularly Sally Fields, whose mother hen comes off as utterly shrewish and needlessly frazzled as her more business-like aspirations chronically take over to clash with her ex-husband’s laissez faire attitude toward life in general.

Pierce Brosnan, only begun to emerge from under the yoke of his ironclad contract with NBC, effectively to prevent him from working anywhere in Hollywood, is token eye candy at best. Stu isn’t a bad guy. Nevertheless, he is needlessly made the butt of many an uncomfortable joke about his shrinking manhood, over-compensated by a big car, amplified in a wet/tight Speedo, and made a mockery of with a ‘run-by fruiting’ (being beaned in the head with a lemon). But the oddest discovery is Robin Williams’ lack of assimilation into the dowdy, but otherwise pert and energized Euphegenia Doubtfire. Williams is not having a good time of it, his innate comedic virtue – to find the manic craziness of life swirling about his brain – seemingly dampened by the heavy prosthetics and latex masking applications, meant to transform him into the gray-haired old matron, newly arrived from England. As if to recognize the role is not entirely coming off as it should, Columbus interrupts the story for a montage, in which Williams, in drag, plays an athletic round of soccer with his kids – belying his real age – combines house-cleaning with rock n’ roll, using a vacuum cleaner as his air guitar, and, finally, makes off-handed comments about Richard Nixon, clutching a lobster in each hand while declaring, “I am not a crook…not a crook!” – the whole, needlessly extended, sequence accompanied by Aerosmith’s Dude (Looks Like a Lady).

Mrs. Doubtfire stars Robin Williams as movie voice-over artist, Daniel Hillard, a father whose marriage has crumbled into ongoing confrontations with his advertising executive wife, Miranda. After Daniel yet again disobeys Miranda’s edicts, hosting a wild birthday party for Chris, to include rappers and farm animals, the latter decimating next-door neighbor, Gloria’s flower beds, Miranda declares their marriage at an end. She kicks Daniel out and files for divorce. Her post-marital celibacy is short-lived when, Stuart Dunmeyer (Pierce Brosnon) arrives. Meanwhile, as part of the divorce agreement, Daniel is denied all but supervised access through a court mediator to see his children, Lydia, Christopher and Natalie. He must also submit to weekly home inspections by court appointee, Mrs. Sellner (Anne Haney). Turning to his gay brother, Frank, who is a make-up artist, and his lover, Jack for counsel, the boys put their heads together and devise a way for Daniel to get to see his children every day – by auditioning to become Miranda’s new housekeeper under an assumed identity. And thus, Daniel’s alter ego, Euphegenia Doubtfire is born. With ease, Daniel wins the interview and position, feigning all sorts of domestic competencies that, in reality, he brutally lacks. Hence, his setting his fake latex breasts on fire when leaning too close into the gas cook top, or, accidentally making a total mess of the kitchen in trying to prepare a nutritious meal for the children, necessitating a quick order of take-out from a fashionable bistro he later passes off as his own.

At first, Chris and Lydia do not warm up to Daniel’s reformed and feisty British matron, who insists they do their homework and go to bed on time like clockwork. Despite keeping his identity a secret from everyone, Daniel steadily wins Chris’ admiration by reporting to have copious knowledge of soccer – a sport, Chris loves – and also, by gingerly guiding Lydia through the peer pressures of finding a boyfriend. Only Natalie is heartened by the new housekeeper, who becomes something of a surrogate for both parents, as Miranda increasingly begins spending more time with Stuart. Confiding her burgeoning romantic feelings for Stu, Miranda is counselled by Euphegenia to refrain from ever having sexual intercourse with any man who is not the father of her children. Several crises arise as Daniel nearly forgets his scheduled meeting with Mrs. Sellner and must suggest Daniel’s absence is due to his working late, after being discovered in drag by Sellner and passing himself off as Daniel’s sister, visiting from England. In one of the awkward fumbles in the screenplay, Daniel is forced to bury his face in the merengue of a lemon pie, passing it off as a facial cream to restore his complexion after his latex appliances topple out an upstairs window and are run over by a passing garbage truck. Mercifully, Frank has extras. And so, the ruse goes on.

As himself, Daniel gets a job at a local television station specializing in afternoon programming for young children. The host is a dud, and Daniel knows it, inadvertently saying as much to Mr. Jonathan Lundy (Robert Prosky) who also happens to be the station manager. Far from being offended, Lundy takes Daniel’s advice to heart and begins shopping the idea around for a new kid’s show with a new host. At home, all appears to be going well until Chris inadvertently walks in on Euphegenia peeing standing up! Believing they are the victims of a pervert/child molester/or worse, Chris is prepared to defend his sisters, forcing Daniel to admit to his camouflage. Elated at their discovery, the elder children agree not to tell Natalie what is going on as she would surely give away the good to Miranda, and thus, ruin everything. Meanwhile, Miranda’s romance with Stu heats up considerably. Stu invites the family out to the pool and also to dinner. During this latter outing, Daniel becomes increasingly jealous of Stu’s advances and elects, with considerable dexterity, to sneak into the restaurant’s kitchen to spike Stu’s jambalaya with enough hot sauce to stifle a horse. Unhappy circumstance, one of the jambalayas become stuck in Stu’s craw. As he begins to choke, Daniel has no choice but to perform the Heimlich maneuver to spare his life.

Unfortunately, in the process, Daniel’s mask and hair become dislodged, revealing to all his true identity. While Stu is grateful to be alive, Miranda is horrified in realizing the person she has entrusted with the care of her household all these many weeks is the same man she drove from it at the outset of her divorce. The next afternoon, Miranda arrives home to find her children moping over the second loss of their father. Realizing what a mistake it would be to keep the family apart, Miranda telephones the court and has the restraining order lifted. From now on, Daniel will collect his children every day after work to spend time with them. Still lamenting the absence of Euphegenia Doubtfire, the children are suddenly startled to hear her familiar voice coming from their television set. Rushing into the living room, the family rejoices in discovering the afternoon children’s programming has been updated at Lundy’s request; Daniel, now hosting his own after school show as Mrs. Doubtfire. Addressing a letter from an ardent viewer of the show, Daniel is touched to find it written by a little girl who, likewise, is enduring anxieties from her parents going through a messy divorce. As Mrs. Doubtfire, Daniel offers the child some heartfelt advice about learning to cope with her losses, encouraging her to remain hopeful, as better days are sure to follow. The movie concludes with Miranda allowing Daniel to collect his children for a few hours after school.

This last act of Mrs. Doubtfire is perhaps the only meaningful moment in the entire picture, as it realigns the focus from farce to family – arguably, always at the crux of this movie, and yet, rarely given to any significant interpretation by Williams or Chris Columbus, outside of these few final minutes. When the script allows, William's improvisation is predictably hilarious. There is, as example, a fantastic montage near the beginning when Frank, Jack and Daniel evolve Euphegenia’s ‘look’ – morphing Daniel into several unconvincing incarnations, that allow Williams to impersonate a Jewish matchmaker, a fiery Latina, and, finally, Barbra Streisand. There is also a moment during Daniel’s first interview with Mrs. Sellner, when asked by the Teutonic court appointee what is his profession, Williams – as Daniel – proceeds to fire off a litany of impressions, to include Sean Connery’s James Bond, a variation on Walter Brennan’s western coot, and, Ronald Reagan – whom Williams infers, along with First Lady Nancy Reagan as “still looking for the other half of my head.” It is important to reference here, Williams’ razor-slicing comedy is referring to Reagan’s guarded testimony during the Iran/Contra interrogation, then, on everyone’s mind, and not, rather cruelly, to be poking fun at the President’s latter-day diagnosis of Alzheimer’s Disease, made to the press some years later, and, to have post-dated the release of this movie by several years.  

Overall, Mrs. Doubtfire moves with ease through its run time. But the Singer/Dixon screenplay goes nowhere fast. Instead of kind-hearted critique, we get crude clichés, instead of genuine recognition for the balancing act most women achieve between work and being the homemaker, we are subjected to tack-on snickers from a man-in-drag’s perspective, picking at the scabs of femininity in general, and, scathingly to diminish motherhood in particular. Williams’ take on the proper English nanny also veers, rather grotesquely into extreme parody. Despite the pancaked camouflage, Williams isn’t believable, either as a caretaker of foreign extraction, or even as a woman, who otherwise ought to share in at least some of the traits one associates with successfully being one.  Unlike Dustin Hoffman’s characterization in Tootsie (1981), completely to have been assimilated by the wig and makeup applications, we are always aware what we are watching is Robin Williams in a fat suit and curlers. Perhaps Williams’ essence is too strong to be entirely obfuscated. But a better actor could have done more with this. Instead of reminding everyone how painful it is to wear a girdle, Williams and Columbus have sincerely forgotten, one half of their audience already knows it for certain, while the other half has figured it out for themselves without the benefit of having to try one on - just for size.

Fox Home Video’s Blu-Ray is a direct import of their ‘Behind the Seams’ standard DVD. This is an adequate, though hardly exceptional 1080p transfer, completed without the benefit of a new scan to update the image quality. There’s nothing really off about the color spectrum. It just isn’t as vibrant. Contrast is superbly rendered as are fine details. There remains some edge enhancement and shimmering of fine details; also, an amplification of film grain, now appearing slightly digitized rather than indigenous to its source. The audio is 5.1 Dolby Digital – no lossless upgrade here. Extras, likewise are direct imports from the old DVD release without the benefit of being upgraded – even to HD quality. Apart from deleted and extended scenes, the rest of the extras include on-camera interviews with stars and crew, a meeting with animator, Chuck Jones, behind-the-scenes makeup and pencil test footage, trailers, vintage promotional junkets and a ‘making of’ that is largely self-congratulatory. Bottom line: Mrs. Doubtfire is a mediocre man-in-drag movie whose one salvation remains Robin Williams. Despite his inability to convince us of his gender switch, some of his own comedic brilliance shines through here, resulting in pleasantly diverting moments to make us smile.

FILM RATING (out of 5 - 5 being the best)

3

VIDEO/AUDIO

3

EXTRAS

4