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| Mrs. Doubtfire |
"Mrs.
Doubtfire" tells the story of a divorced man who misses his children so desperately
that he disguises himself as a middle-aged British nanny in order to be near
them. The man's ex-wife and three kids are all, of course, completely fooled by
the deception, leading to great poignancy when the man hears himself discussed
in what appears to be his absence.
If this plot
sounds to you like an elaborate scheme to create a comic role for an actor in
drag, you would not be far off; Robin Williams, who is famous for his ability
to do voices and impressions, would have had to be carried away kicking and
screaming from the project. But the film is not as amusing as the premise, and
there were long stretches when I'd had quite enough of Mrs. Doubtfire.
Williams
stars in the movie as Daniel Hillard, an actor who specializes in dubbing the
voices of cartoon characters. That means we get a title sequence showing him
talking like a cat and a mouse, and since he's done such a brilliant job with
characters like the genie in "Aladdin," this is fun to see.
But soon the
plot machinery begins to creak. His wife Miranda (Sally Field) can no longer
endure his little eccentricities, like hiring a private zoo for their son's
birthday party. She files for divorce. The judge gives Daniel visitation rights
only on Saturdays. And so he turns in desperation to his gay brother, Frank
(Harvey Fierstein), a makeup expert, who helps disguise him as the redoubtable
Mrs. Doubtfire, a younger but not slimmer Miss Marple.
The disguise
is surprisingly good. Not good enough to fool one's own kith and kin, I
suppose, but we can allow the movie its premise. Mrs. Doubtfire turns out to be
the nanny from heaven, so firm, so helpful, so reassuring, that if Daniel had
been at all like this, he'd still be married. The kids love him.
Act two.
Time for complications. His wife turns up with a new boyfriend (Pierce
Brosnan), and Daniel, in drag, has to stand by and grind his teeth as the
romance progresses. Daniel has been ordered to find work by the judge and is
employed as a shipping clerk at a TV station. (This is necessary for plot
purposes, I guess; otherwise, why would a skilled and experienced voice-over
actor not be able to make more money in his original field?).
All this
leads up to the movie's climactic comic set-piece, when, for complicated
reasons, both Daniel and Mrs. Doubtfire must be in the same restaurant at the
same time, at different tables. Is this funny? Sort of. But it doesn't explode
with humor the way it really should.
Everyone
knows that Williams is a mercurial talent who loves to dart in and out of many
different characters and voices. But a little of that goes a long way, and
already has. There's a scene here, for example, where Williams "does"
a dozen voices for an employment counselor, and the movie stops cold for this
vaudeville act, just as the Marx Brothers movies always paused for Harpo's
instrumental solos.
Any review
of "Mrs. Doubtfire" must take into account Dustin Hoffman's
transvestite comedy, "Tootsie," which remains by far the better film:
more believable, more intelligent and funnier. "Tootsie" grew out of
real wit and insight; "Mrs. Doubtfire" has the values and depth of a
sitcom.
Hoffman as
an actor was able to successfully play a woman.
Williams,
who is also a good actor, seems more to be playing himself playing a woman.
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