Dude is Kind of Crazy: Mrs. Doubtfire at 30
Mrs. Doubtfire. 20th Century Studios (1993).
What once seemed like wholesome fun is now a 10 on the creeper scale.
I haven’t watched Mrs. Doubtfire all the way through for at least 15 years or more. There are always the occasional YouTube snippets or Instagram Reels that pop up here and there of some of the more well-known scenes, but never the entire movie. Finding out that Mrs. Doubtfire was approaching its 30th anniversary (yikes) inspired me to rent it, watch it, and reminisce about this movie that I loved when I was a kid.
Robin Williams plays Daniel Hillard, a man who is a great father but a terrible husband. His wife Miranda, depicted by Sally Fields, has had it with his antics and decides to divorce him. Sadly for Daniel, this means he gets way less time with his kids, who are his heart and soul, and he needs to figure out how to spend more time with them. He gets this harebrained idea to respond to Miranda’s wanted ad for a nanny, only he needs to dress in drag as an old lady to do it. Daniel, with the help of his brother’s special effects makeup, creates Euphegenia Doubtfire, an elderly English woman who is the right person for the job. It’s a pretty wild ruse, if you think about it.
As I was about to start the movie, I saw that it was given a PG-13 rating, which was kind of a shock. The way that it was marketed was as a family friendly comedy, but in rewatching it, I can see why it was given that rating. Many of the jokes in the script were not designed for kids, in fact, they probably went over most kids’ heads at the time. Adults will immediately understand Mrs. Doubtfire taking jabs at Miranda’s new boyfriend, but kids might not grasp that. What they will laugh at is Williams’s physical comedy, which is front and center in this film.
Williams, as always, was so phenomenal. One of the funnest scenes to watch is when Daniel is creating Mrs. Doubtfire’s persona and look. Daniel, his brother, and his brother’s partner go through a handful of costume changes, appearances, and accents trying to make this woman come to life. Williams was always so good at transforming into different characters, and this montage is just a small glimpse of his range.
For Daniel, being Mrs. Doubtfire is the only way he can see his kids on a consistent basis. One might think that he’s just a super dedicated dad that will go to any lengths to be around his children. But on the other hand, the hand that is correct, it’s a complete and total violation of boundaries and trust. Take, for instance, the scene where Miranda is revealing to Mrs. Doubtfire the real reasons why she divorced Daniel. Miranda thinks she’s talking to an elderly woman who she can confide in, when it’s really her ex husband in drag needling her for information! That is totally wrong and gives major stalker vibes. I don’t think I got that as a youngster watching the movie.
Watching the film as a kid, I was swept away with Williams’s performance and escapades as Mrs. Doubtfire. Seeing him throw a lime at the back of Miranda’s boyfriend’s head and exclaiming it was a “run by fruiting!” has always stuck with me. Watching Daniel in his disguise dance around to “Dude Looks Like a Lady” while cleaning the house and using a broom as a guitar was, and still is, hysterical. I don’t really remember thinking there was anything strange or invasive about Daniel’s approach to spending more time with his children.
And even though, as an adult, I still laughed at all of those moments, and was still touched by how deeply Daniel felt about his children and what he would do to spend more time with him, I saw things differently. I mostly thought about Miranda and how upsetting it was when she found out about what was really going on. Miranda was made to look like the bad guy for a majority of the movie, but was she really? Not if you think about it.
Here’s this mom who is the sole breadwinner of the family because Daniel is frequently unemployed. On top of that, he shirks most of the heavy responsibilities of raising children so that he can be the fun dad, and she is made to look like mean mommy because she has to make the tough decisions. She’s exhausted with this routine because she’s given Daniel chance after chance to get his shit together, and she sees her only way out of it by ending the marriage. For most of the movie, Daniel doesn’t have the maturity or self-awareness to see or accept how his actions drove that rift in the marriage, but he sure as hell loved to point the finger at Miranda.
I guess with any movie that is aged, we as the audience need to make some exceptions. We need to overlook the fact that Daniel is, ultimately, completely violating the boundaries of his ex wife, and the trust of his children. Once you get past that part, it’s still an amusing movie that will bring a smile to one’s face starring an actor that is so loved and so missed.