|
.. |
|
MRS. DOUBTFIRE
Behind the Seams Edition
Review by Michael Jacobson
Stars:
Robin Williams, Sally Field, Pierce Brosnan, Harvey Firestein, Robert
Prosky
Director: Chris Columbus
Audio: Dolby Digital 5.1, Dolby
Surround
Video: Widescreen 2.35:1
Studio: 20th
Century Fox
Features: See Review
Length: 125 Minutes
Release Date: March 4, 2008
"My first day as a woman, and I'm already getting hot flashes..."
Film ***
Robin Williams may now be a respected Academy Award winning
actor, but there will likely always be an audience who will flock to see him do
what he does best: comedy.
In Mrs. Doubtfire, he delivers
some of his funniest work, that unfortunately happens to be lightly peppered
with some serious moments that don’t quite work.
Williams plays Daniel Hillard, a down on his luck
voice-over artist who’s facing the prospect of divorce from his long suffering
wife, Miranda (Field). Not willing
to have his time with his kids limited, he takes a rather drastic and funny
course of action: with the help of
his make-up artist brother (Firestein), he dons the disguise of an old British
nanny, and moves in as housekeeper right under his wife’s nose.
This opens up a lot of comic territory to explore, and
Williams and director Columbus seem to hit most of it.
I mean, Robin Williams in drag is funny enough, but making him an old
lady is hysterical. Everything you would expect from a gender bending comedy is
here. The moments of near
discovery. Learning his wife is
seeing a handsome rich stud (Brosnan) and being able to do something about it.
And, of course, the climax that forces Mrs. Doubtfire and Daniel Hillard
to be at the same place at the same time. Although
most of these scenarios are expected, Williams’ wonderful comic energy makes
it all work in the most delightful ways imaginable.
The problem for me is, from time to time the film tries to
comment on the seriousness of divorce, particularly how it affects children.
A worthwhile topic, to be sure, but it doesn’t mix well with the
film’s comic energy. Frankly, if
I had wanted to see Kramer vs. Kramer, I
would have rented that. The whole
divorce aspect of the story actually kicks off with an argument over their
child’s birthday party. Nice. We’re supposed to mentally fill in that this was just
actually the last straw in a long series of disagreements, but neither Williams
nor Field really offer enough to communicate that kind of history.
And there are the comic licenses that are just a bit too
much to be believed. I’m sorry,
but I just don’t buy that a TV executive would deliberately hire a man dressed
as a woman to be the host of a daily children’s show, nor do I believe that a
show doing as badly as the one he’s replacing would have been on the air for
so many years.
But these are minor points.
The film is a comedy, first and foremost, and when it concentrates on the
laughs, it delivers big time. So
ignore the moral lessons and enjoy Robin Williams doing what he still does best:
comedy. And as an added bonus, enjoy the Williams’ voiced cartoon
short that plays during the movie’s opening, made by none other than the
legendary Chuck Jones.
Video **1/2
This is a good effort from Fox, but not great. On the plus side, the disc offers clean, crisp images with no grain or color bleeding, but as a negative, the entire film appears maybe a fraction of a shade lighter than it should have been. Often, colors look a little more drab than natural, including rather off-tones for whites. The film is only fifteen years old, but it appears to be suffering from some premature aging signs. Anamorphic enhancement might have helped some.
Audio ***
The 5.1 soundtrack is quite good, though, particularly with
the energetic musical score that accompanies the film that creates a full,
ambient listening experience despite much discreet channel usage.
Features ***
The disc
contains 30 minutes of deleted scenes, two production featurettes, a photo
gallery, a conversation with legendary animator Chuck Jones as well as a look at
pencil tests and the final animation he created, a look at the make-up, the
improvisation of the film, and the original 1993 featurette with trailers and
publicity stills.
Summary:
Mrs. Doubtfire succeeds enough at being funny to make up for the shortcomings of being serious. This is one of Robin William’s finest performances.