Mr. Mom Goes Geriatric

"Mrs. Doubtfire"

directed by Chris Columbus

20th Century Fox

Forget whether or not your housekeeper is an illegal alien. The real question, at least in "Mrs. Doubtfire," is whether or not she/he is your estranged husband in disguise. Directed by Chris Columbus, "Mrs. Doubtfire" is the tale of Daniel Hillard (Robin Williams), a man who dresses up as a nanny in order to be near his kids. Buoyed by Williams" antics and the innocent reactions of his wife Miranda (Sally Field), their three adorable children and Miranda's new suitor Stuart (Pierce Brosnan), the movie succeeds in providing some genuinely funny light comedy, but ultimately suffers from its attempt to come back to reality.

The casting of Williams as an unemployed voice-over artist is obviously meant to draw on the publicity he gained as the voice of the Genie in Disney's "Aladdin." In deciding on a persona for the housekeeping job Miranda advertises, he and his make up-wizard brother (Harvey Fierstein) run through a list of accents and outfits in a ridiculous procession a la "Aladdin" 's "Friend Like Me." After ranging from a Russian babushka to Barbra Streisand, he settles down as the matronly, English accented Euphegenia Doubtfire, and the movie's triumph is that Williams is convincing in this role. While it is still rather odd that Miranda experiences deja vu only at the film's outset, and the children never suspect him, the complete transformation that Williams undergoes makes it much easier to suspend disbelief.

Having carefully set up an outrageous premise, the film proceeds to milk it for all it's worth. Even the music is chosen purely for laughs--seeing Williams prance about in heels to the tune of "Walk Like A Man," "Dude Looks Like A Lady" and "Papa's Got A Brand New Bag" is amusing, and his attempts at housecleaning include the requisite dance-with-the-vacuum-cleaner.

The perils of womanhood that Daniel must now face are humorous if not entirely original; though we expect and are provided with the typical griping about high heels, the treatment he doles out to a would-be mugger is one of the film's better moments. Williams' slap-stick style of switching identities, while more strained, is also funny, and even the over-worked puns (e.g. "I'm my own man now") have their charm.

This slap-stick atmosphere, however, proves incompatible when the film chooses to shift gears, focusing on the serious problems of divorce. While Sally Field is largely convincing as a somewhat frustrated, struggling career woman, the "real-life" interactions between Daniel and Miranda seem stiff and unrealistic. And no tangible rapport is established between Daniel and his beloved children--they may profess to love him, but all seem equally fond of thehandsome, stereotypical yuppie Stu, a purposelyone-dimensional character. The relationshipbetween Daniel/Mrs. Doubtfire and Stu seems overlystrained given that Daniel's main motivation forthe charade is to see his kids, not to reunitewith Miranda. This detracts from our sympathy forWilliams' character by making the witty attemptsof Mrs. Doubtfire to sabotage Miranda's new lovealmost petty.

Perhaps the main problem with "Mrs. Doubtfire,"then, lies in the fact that Williams' creation isso much more believable and likable than Daniel orany of the other "real-life" characters. Daniel inparticular is merely a rehash of the innocent,boymen Williams played without success in "Hook"and "Toys." "Mrs. Doubtfire" provides some bellylaughs but fails to carry through on the seriousmessage about family and divorce it seeks toproject in its latter scenes. Luckily, theseattempts do not inhibit the movie's comic moments,and Williams' mastery carries through despite theemotional baggage imposed on him